Coates, Albert, 1896-1989

Albert Coates, founder and long-time director of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, was born in Johnston County, N.C., in 1896 and died in 1989. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina in 1918 and an LLB from Harvard University in 1923. Upon graduation, Coates joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of Law and taught there until 1969. In 1931, Coates founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina. He served as its director until 1962.

Coates was the author of numerous works, including Talks on the Rule of Law and the Role of Government in the Cities, the Counties, and the State of North Carolina (1971); By her Own Bootstraps: A Saga of Women in North Carolina (1975); and The Story of the Institute of Government: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1981).

In 1928, Coates married Gladys Jane Hall, who was born in Portsmouth, Va., in 1902. She had earned a bachelor's degree from Randolph-Macon Women's College in 1924. She wrote a number of works by herself and in collaboration with her husband. By all accounts, Gladys Hall Coates played an important and integral role in many of the projects that Albert Coates undertook. In addition to their various literary collaborations, she and Albert used their personal funds to help establish the Institute of Government. Gladys Hall Coates earned the Chi Omega Fraternity Distinguished Service Medal in 1974, the Alumnae Achievement Award from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1990, the Distinguished Service Medal from the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association in 1992, and the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award in 1994. She died in 2002.

From the guide to the Albert Coates and Gladys Hall Coates Papers, 1841-2001, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)