Ruffin Elected Chair Of Univ. Of N. Carolina Board

Jet, August 10, 1998

By a single vote, tobacco executive Ben Ruffin was elected the first Black chairman of the board of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

In a historic shakeup, Ruffin, the vice president of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco company in Winston-Salem, NC, eked out the narrow margin to defeat sitting chairman Cliff Cameron.

He will head the 32-member board that approves policies for UNC's 16 campuses, which have 154,000 students and a $2.3 billion budget. It is the nation's oldest public institution.

The board appoints members of the board of trustees of the individual institutions.

A native of Durham, Ruffin graduated from North Carolina Central University and earned a Master's in social work from UNC. He lives in Winston-Salem.

The Herald Sun newspaper editorialized that "Ruffin's rise to chairman of the powerful board is a testament to what one individual can accomplish with hard work."

A former vice president for the N. C. Mutual Life Insurance Co., Ruffin also worked as a special assistant to North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, serving as minority affairs director for more than seven years beginning in 1977.