Lunsford Richardson Preyer (1919-2001) was a lawyer, judge, politician, educator, and civic and philanthropic leader from Greensboro, N.C.
Lunsford Richardson Preyer was born in Greensboro, N.C., on 11 January 1919, the third of five sons of William Yost Preyer and Mary Norris Richardson Preyer. Rich graduated from Woodberry Forest School in 1937, Princeton University in 1941, and Harvard Law School in 1949. Between college and law school, Preyer joined the United States Navy. During World War II, he served on a destroyer in the Atlantic and South Pacific as a lieutenant gunnery officer, torpedo officer, and executive officer. He was awarded the bronze star for action off Okinawa.
After the war, Preyer returned to Greensboro, N.C., and married Emily Harris, a long-time family friend. Emily was born in Reidsville, N.C. She graduated from Greensboro Senior High School, then earned a B.A. from Woman's College of the University of North Carolina in 1939 and an M.A. from the University of Virginia in 1941. She taught foreign languages at Central High School in Charlotte, N.C., for two years, then volunteered with the American Red Cross in Australia and the Phillippine Islands until World War II ended.
In 1946, the newlyweds moved to Boston where Rich entered Harvard Law School. After he graduated in 1949, they moved to New York, N.Y., so that Rich could intern for a year in the family business, Vick Chemical Company. Rich studied the workings of the family businesses, which had expanded beyond pharmaceuticals to other markets by 1950, in order to make recommendations about training the next generation to participate in the family operations.
In 1951, the Preyers returned to Greensboro, where Rich opened a law practice with Fred Bynum, Jr., a friend from both the Navy and Harvard Law School. The Preyer and Bynum Law Office provided typical legal services, including estate, divorce, and title searches. In 1953, just two years after opening a practice, Preyer was appointed city judge. In 1956, he was appointed to the North Carolina Superior Court by Governor Luther Hodges, and, in 1961, he was appointed to the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina by President John F. Kennedy.
Preyer's federal appointment was shortlived. He resigned the judgeship in 1963 to become a candidate for governor of North Carolina in the 1964 election. Preyer's first foray into politics was shortlived, too. He led Dan Moore and Beverly Lake in the first Democratic primary, but lost in the runoff with Moore.
In November 1964, Preyer returned to the private sector as a senior vice president and trust officer (and later city executive) of the North Carolina National Bank of Greensboro. Three years later, Preyer left this position to become a candidate for United States Congress, Sixth District of North Carolina. He won that election and was reelected to five more terms.
Preyer was highly regarded by his congressional colleagues, many of whom addressed him as Judge. He served on several high-profile committees over the course of his six terms in office, including the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (Subcommittee on Public Health and the Environment and Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance); the House Committee on Government Operations (chair, Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights); and the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. In addition, Preyer chaired the Select Commitee on Ethics (95th Congress), which wrote the Congressional Code of Ethics. He also chaired the Subcommittee on Assassination of President Kennedy of the Select Committee on Assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King and served as president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union of House and Senate.
Preyer's congressional career ended when he lost reelection in 1980 to Eugene Johnston. In 1981, he returned to private life, this time as the William Neal Reynolds Visiting Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Subsequent teaching positions included a visiting professorship at Duke University Law School, and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Preyer also intermittently guest-lectured at these schools, Greensboro College, and others throughout the 1980s. His lectures frequently addressed the intersection of politics with health care, law, ethics, media, and other issues.
Preyer led an active civic life, especially before and after his congressional career. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, both he and Emily lent their names, enthusiasm, and philanthropic support to many charitable causes and civic projects and organizations at the local, state, and national level. Their interests included education, fine arts, and disease research and treatment, among many others. Their commitments of time and energy were particulary strong to various groups convened to benefit the Greensboro community. While in Congress, Preyer's commitments to civic organizations were fewer than usual, but his release from congressional duties in 1981 allowed him to resume more active roles in the community. During the 1980s and 1990s, he helped to establish the Private Adjudication Center and Project Uplift, Inc., and also chaired Governor James G. Martin's Task Force on Reforming Secondary Education in North Carolina and Governor Jim Hunt's North Carolina Coastal Futures Committee. He continued to serve on the boards of various research, civic, philanthropic, and public interest institutions, foundations, and organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, North Carolina Institute for Political Leadership, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Preyer also served as president, trustee, or advisor on numerous boards for various academic institutions and educational organizations, including Davidson College, Greensboro College, Guilford College, the National Cathedral School, the North Carolina Outward Bound School, Salem College, Union Theological Seminary (Richmond, Va.), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and School of Social Work, and Wake Forest University.
Preyer received many honors for his public service. Notably, he received the Greensboro Inter-Club Council's Outstanding Civic Leader of the Year Award (1969), a Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine (1973), and the Senator Phillip Hart Memorial Award for Conscience by Washingtonian Magazine (1978). In 1989, the federal building in Greensboro was named for him. Preyer also received honorary degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1972), Elon College (1972)m Davidson College (1977), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1979), and Duke University (1980).
The Preyers also were active members of the First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro. Rich and Emily both served as elders of the church and taught Sunday school classes even while living in Washington, D.C. At various times, Rich was elected chair of the board of trustees and clerk of the session.
Despite considerable commitments to academic, civic, philanthropic, religious, and other public interest institutions, foundations, and organizations, Preyer was not unconnected to the private sector. He served on boards of directors for several companies, including Piedmont Management Company, Inc., Vanguard Cellular Systems, and other companies with ties to the Richardson family.
Preyer was an avid tennis player and an oft sought-after doubles partner on Capitol Hill. Likewise he was a skilled and knowledgable musician. He played the saxophone, gave lectures on jazz, and wrote reviews of jazz albums and books. While in Congress, he performed with the Congressional Jazz Combo.
Rich and Emily Preyer had five children: L. Richardson Preyer, Jr. (1948- ), who married Marilyn Jacobs; Mary Norris Preyer, who married Henry Patrick Oglesby; Britt Armfield Preyer, who married Alice Dockery; Jane Bethel Preyer; and Emily Harris Preyer (1959- ), who married Richard Tillman Fountain III.
Richardson Preyer died 3 April 2001, in Greensboro, N.C. He was preceded in death by Emily, who died 12 December 1999, also in Greensboro.
From the guide to the Richardson Preyer Papers, circa 1900-2004, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)
