Terry Sanford, who focused on improving North Carolina’s public schools when he was the state’s governor, died April 18 after a battle with cancer. He was 80.
As governor from 1961 to 1965, Mr. Sanford, a Democrat, promoted legislation to raise teacher salaries and to create the state’s community college system. During his tenure, the state increased public school budgets by 50 percent, much of it through an unpopular sales tax on food, dubbed “Terry’s tax.”
He was the president of Duke University from 1969 to 1975. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and served one term.
