July 2004 Executive Profile His Winning Ticket As the youngest of 14 kids,  Glenn Jernigan learned patience, and a whole lot about politics
“I’m constantly learning about a different issue: why biotech’s important, or why we should advocate agriculture more, or why our education system needs to be refined, or the importance of our universities as far as being our economic engine.”

By Heidi Russell Rafferty

At the knee of his soft-spoken mother, Glenn Jernigan learned the value of treating people with respect and love. By his father’s example, he grasped a strong work ethic that propelled him through successful business endeavors as well as public service, first as a lawmaker, then as chair of the state Employment Security Commission.

Today, Jernigan is the owner of a government consulting and lobbying firm, Glenn Jernigan and Associates, in Fayetteville. His lifelong friends agree that since his youthful days, Jernigan has steadfastly held a reputation as a person of honor, kindness and loyalty.

“He is a prince of a man,” says Judge Gerald Arnold, former chief judge of the state Court of Appeals. “He’s the best friend I’ve got in the world next to my wife, and if I were to commit an act of indiscretion, I wouldn’t want him to know about it. He is a person of absolute integrity.”

Tom Whitaker, deputy chair and chief of staff of the Employment Security Commission, notes, “You can take his word and put it in the bank.”

For his part, Jernigan says his life philosophy is derived from a quote by the late Peter Marshall, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister who became the chaplain of the U.S. Senate in 1947: “The measure of one’s life is not duration, but donation.”

“I believe that,” Jernigan says. “And you donate in terms of giving back to your community and providing for your family, making your community a better place to work and live. You know, when you look at it in that light, there are a lot of heroes around.”

Jernigan credits the heroes of his childhood for shaping his world outlook. His father was an ironworker in Fayetteville with an elementary school education who was committed to putting his family first. “We were a family with a lot of pride, and whatever we wanted, we worked for,” Jernigan says, adding that his children “find it difficult to understand that I grew up in a family that never had a car.”

Jernigan was the youngest of 14 — seven girls and seven boys. At birth, he weighed a mere 2 1/2 pounds and was supposed to live for only three days. “They fed me with a little eye dropper, and so from that I’m convinced there’s a purpose for me being here,” he says.

He revered brothers Harold and Cedric, who were both popular students and outstanding athletes. They inspired him to pursue sports. Harold Jernigan recalls that his baby brother came to his high school football games. “I would pick him up and put him on my shoulder after the game was over,” he says, adding that he was also his brother’s Little League coach. He says that even then, little Glenn demonstrated good personal qualities. “He tried really hard to be a good ballplayer. He was one of the most conscientious players they had,” Harold says.

During Glenn Jernigan’s high school senior year in 1956, he was a halfback and punt returner for the undefeated state co-champions. “We tied in the championship, and they didn’t have playoffs at the time,” he explains.

Jernigan displays a black and white photo of the team in his office, obviously proud of fellow teammates who he felt were heroes then and now. He sentimentally points to each ruddy, tussle-headed youngster, and with great care, describes what happened to them later in life — a minister here, a town manager there, a soldier slain in Vietnam there.

Former teammate Jim Langford, a semi-retired Baptist minister who lives in Black Mountain, says he blocked while Jernigan scored touchdowns. He credits Jernigan for keeping people in touch for many years after. “I think he has been very desirous of keeping the class together,” Langford says. “All of us feel like those days in high school were special, and playing football was special. You’re a team, and that’s what we were, and that brotherhood was special.”

Jernigan lovingly speaks of another hero — a 10-year-old girl who he met when he was in seventh grade. She was the sister of one of his teammates on the midget league football team. “Her name was Jane Clark, and later on she became my wife,” he says, smiling broadly.

He and Jane married after college in 1963, and their 41 years together have been filled with both joy and adversity. Jane has been clear of lung cancer for the past five years and was the “poster child” for the oncology center of the University of North Carolina Health Care system in Chapel Hill. Jane was featured by UNC in a full-page ad, which has run in this publication as well as national magazines such as Southern Living. “She demonstrated courage and a positive attitude,” he says. “We made a basic decision: we weren’t dying with cancer, we were living with cancer. And I think that had a tremendous effect on her treatment.”

The couple has two children, Elizabeth Jane and Glenn Jr., and three grandchildren: three-year-old twin boys named Chandler and Chase and a baby girl named Emme.

He says he has learned the most from his wife, “who has taught me to face adversity with calmness and faith like a champion, and who has been loyal and supportive in all of my endeavors, not just one. I often say the thing I love about my wife is, if we want to go to the governor’s ball, she’s happy to do that, and if we need to dig a ditch, we’ll do that, too.”

Jernigan’s family was poor, so money was tight for college. He stood in line with $1.30 in his pocket to be admitted to Campbell Junior College. “I knew how much money I had and knew it was not enough, and I wanted to go there. And they asked me to step out of the line, and I had to see a gentleman by the name of Mr. Small. Mr. Small was one of the biggest men I’ve ever seen. And I just arranged to pay him for a while,” Jernigan says.

He earned tuition money working as a short-order cook at the only restaurant in town and at a drug store across the street. “And then at night I would pick up bottles from the dormitories, and they would pay me $15 a month,” he adds. By the time he graduated, Jernigan did so as president of his class.

He went on to finish his B.A. at East Carolina University in 1961, graduating with a major in social studies and a minor in economics. Jernigan is a former member of the university’s Board of Trustees. At ECU Jernigan worked in the student union building. His boss was Cynthia Mendenhall, for whom the new student center is named today.

At ECU, Jernigan was a member of “Who’s Who Among Students in American in Universities” and was also on the Dean’s Honor Club. He was head of the Young Democrats Club, and the people he met inspired him to pursue a career in politics. One was a young senator from Massachusetts who happened to be running for United States president.

 “We invited John Kennedy to come to Greenville and he came,” Jernigan says. Terry Sanford, who was campaigning for governor at the time, endorsed Kennedy and had arranged the visit. Sanford was Jernigan’s mentor, and Jernigan handled his campaign on the East Carolina University level. He also handled Kennedy’s youth campaign for the entire state.

Sanford introduced Jernigan to another young man who would eventually help shape his career: future Gov. Jim Hunt. Hunt had been chosen to oversee the Kennedy campaign for young people but couldn’t handle it with his schedule. Jernigan took the reins. “From that day on in 1959, Hunt and I became very close — not only politically, but from a friendship standard. Later on, as I moved from the House to the Senate, my office was next door to his office when he was lieutenant governor,” Jernigan says.

Jernigan notes that Sanford motivated young people to get involved in the political process, and this spurred him to seek public office in 1971.

But immediately after college, he focused first on his business aspirations. He took a job in Greensboro at a financial institution for six months and then entered an active duty Reserve program for six months at Fort Jackson. All seven of the Jernigan boys would serve their country, and four of them would fight in World War II. His brothers’ wartime experiences, coupled with his mother’s patient ordeal for them to come home, have always been inspirational to Jernigan. “That’s an important contribution. I learned from my mother as I watched her with anxiety over having four sons in the war at the same time,” he says.

After his time in the Reserves, Jernigan moved back to Fayetteville and studied with a local mortgage company. Wachovia Bank & Trust Co. soon asked him to launch its mortgage operation in the city, and the office became so productive that Wachovia promoted Jernigan to Fayetteville city executive and COO.

At the same time, Jernigan became the youngest member of the state House when he was elected in 1971. He decided to leave Wachovia in 1974 and open his own company, Glenn Jernigan Realty & Investments Inc. He was a state representative from 1971-73 and moved to the Senate in 1973, where he served three terms, until 1982.

One of the most memorable political battles for Jernigan was the fight over establishing the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. He was a co-sponsor of the legislation, which met with much resistance. “People did not feel that another school was justified or needed,” Jernigan explains. Today, the school is nationally recognized for its outstanding primary emphasis on family practitioners.

Arnold, who also was a legislator at the time, was Jernigan’s roommate during legislative session. He has goaded Jernigan about his tardiness for years. “He’s never been on time anywhere in his life except when he’s with me,” Arnold says, adding there’s a good reason for Jernigan’s bad habit:

 “One of the reasons he’s late is he stops and talks to anyone he sees along the way,” Arnold says. He notes that so many people know Jernigan that, “I always tell people I’d rather be friends with Jernigan than have money.”

Childhood prepared Jernigan for politics, says brother Harold, who recalls that when someone asked Glenn how long he’d been in politics, he replied, “If you’re the 14th child you start at an early age.” “He was quite a politician, but he learned a lot from his sisters and bros and parents,” Harold Jernigan says. “He learned a lot of honest things from his mother and father that concerns morals — being honest with people.”

Jernigan served as co-chair of the General Assembly Ethics Committee; chair of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee, vice-chair of Economy; Finance, Congressional Redistricting and Senior Citizen Affairs committees; and chair of the House Election Laws Committee.

He also was chair of the Manufacturing, Labor & Commerce Committee, which set the stage for Gov. Hunt to tap him to chair the Employment Security Commission.

Whitaker, who has been with the ESC for 32 years, worked closely with Jernigan when he was a senator to sponsor a number of bills that involved complex legal changes. When Jernigan became chair, he asked Whitaker to become his chief deputy. Whitaker says Jernigan’s legacy has been that he established a permanent, customer-service-oriented culture at the ESC. “He said, ‘Let’s address people not as claimants but address them as customers.’ He changed the culture,” Whitaker says.

Jernigan’s most remembers that the ESC was undergoing drastic economic changes because of cutbacks in federal funding. A proposal was floated to close 39 ESC offices around the state, but Jernigan’s team managed to keep them open by rallying businesses for support.

 “I credit that to the employers within the communities who realized the value of the Employment Security Commission office in terms of job searches, in terms of labor market information, in terms of unemployment insurance,” Jernigan says.

Jernigan adds that when he was first appointed chair, North Carolina’s ESC was ranked sixth out of eight regional states for productivity. When he left in 1986, it was tied for first place nationally.

Jernigan says after his ESC stint, he had to decide whether to go back into banking, real estate and development or do something new altogether. “Well, I decided that the thing that I loved the most was politics and public service, and that if you feel that you sincerely enjoy that process, why not utilize those skills and experiences? And I came to the conclusion that I should open up a governmental affairs company,” he says.

His work since then has mostly been lobbying, but he also is a consultant. Some of his clients have included General Motors Insurance, Monsanto Corp., the world-leading agribusiness Syngenta, the North Carolina Medical Society and the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association.

Some issues that are important to him include biotechnology (“We’re pioneers in that movement,” he says) and tort reform. “I think that medicine is such an inexact science and that we’ve reached a point where we demand perfection. Along the way, we seem to forget that in spite of some of our experiences, we still have the best medical service in the world,” Jernigan says.

Bryan says people trust and respect Jernigan. “People sense his integrity,” he says.

“I’m constantly learning about a different issue: why biotech’s important, or why we should advocate agriculture more, or why our education system needs to be refined, or the importance of our universities as far as being our economic engine,” Jernigan says.

His lifetime achievement is that he has been involved “with people on all levels” and that he has been able to live out his mother’s lesson to treat everyone with fairness and respect. “She did that by example, not by words,” Jernigan says.



Return to magazine index