John Sprunt Hill (1869-1961) was one of North Carolina's most successful bankers - and a distinguished lawyer.
Mr. Hill was a remarkable leader within the powerful North Carolina business families (Duke, Watts, Carr, Hill), who controlled the American Tobacco
Company - a worldwide fountain of wealth - in early 1900's North Carolina.
Mr. Hill was also a Columbia-trained lawyer, who helped form N. C. Blue
Cross Blue Shield, Central Carolina Bank, Durham S&L, built The
Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill and gave it (!) to UNC, funded the N.C.
Historical Collection at the UNC-CH Library, owned numerous prosperous
farms, was a State Senator... and that's just the short list. Nobody's fool ... North Carolina's top banker, business entrepreneur, brilliant attorney, concerned philanthropist, exceptional human spirit.
But did you know this about that distinguished North Carolina banker and attorney, John Sprunt Hill?
"In
1913, Hill traveled to Europe in an effort to study rural credit
systems that had sprung up there in response to widespread poverty. He returned
to the United States intent on implementing a similar system at home. Hill remarked that, "Credit union membership is a certificate of
character and a badge of honor. Let a person stay in the credit union
for ten years and it changes his whole philosophy of life—it is a modern
miracle."
Soon after passage of the North Carolina Credit Union Act on March 6, 1915 - which Hill personally wrote and shepherded through the North Carolina Legislature - North Carolina's first credit union opened in 1916, in the southern Durham County community of Lowe's Grove. Hill was called the "Father of Rural Credit in North Carolina." [link entire NCpedia bio]
But here, listen to what that distinguished North Carolina lawyer, John Sprunt Hill, had to say about credit unions:
❖ "Credit Unions are not banks. Banks are aggregations of money; Credit Unions are aggregations of men ."
❖ "Credit Unions capitalize the character of the membership."
❖
"A Credit Union organized within a group, the members of which have no
credit problems, obviously fills no need and organizations of this type
should not be encouraged."
❖
"Credit Unions increase the general prosperity, and thereby improve the
community and its other businesses, helping others to attain a better
economic status."
John Sprunt Hill a distinguished banker, attorney, and citizen of North Carolina who understood: "There is a Difference"... and was proud to be the leading force in bringing that difference to North Carolina.
