Harper, James C. (James Cunningham), 1893-1986

Captain James Cunningham Harper graduated from Davidson College in 1915. Prior to Davidson, Captain Harper attended Lenoir High School in the small town of Lenoir, NC. During his Davidson career, Harper was director of the College Orchestra and a member of the track and gym team. After leaving Davidson College, J.C. Harper did graduate work in economics at Chapel Hill and Columbia University to prepare for a banking career. In 1921 Harper took over the direction of the Lenoir High School Bank and managed to get the American Legion to donate 24 instruments to the local high school.

Harper conducted the Lenoir High School Band from 1924 until he retired in 1958 devoting his entire life and family fortune to the idea that "a handful of mountain children in NC deserve to have a conservatory education absolutely free of charge." The band's music building boasted 18 practice rooms, a gigantic rehearsal room, offices and storage rooms, locker rooms for boys and girls, and a library full of music, records, and scores. The band itself had three sets of uniforms, as well as a fleet of buses and instrument trucks to transport it to events around the region, including parades, gubernatorial inaugurations, and halftimes of the Carolina-Virginia football games. Davidson College gave him an honorary degree in 1964. Harper died in February 1986.