Faulkner, Janice H. (Janice Hardison), 1932-

Janice Grey Hardison Faulkner worked in various posts at East Carolina University for 36 years from 1957 until 1992. Her primary position was a professor of English, but she also served as the director of Alumni Affairs and director of the Regional Development Institute. During her time at the university, she was also heavily active in the local Democratic Party. In the 1990s, she served the North Carolina state government as Secretary of Revenue, Secretary of State, and Commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles. Faulkner’s career was one of many firsts.

Faulkner was born on 19 January 1932 in Jamesville, North Carolina. The eldest of two children, she grew up helping on the family tobacco farm, playing baseball with her father and brother and their neighbors in her spare time. Shortly after graduating as valedictorian of her high school class in 1950, Faulkner moved to Greenville, N.C. to begin taking summer school courses at East Carolina University (still called East Carolina College at the time). She graduated in 1953 with her bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Social Studies. She then taught English at various schools in North Carolina, all while taking graduate courses at East Carolina on the weekends. Upon completion of her master’s in 1956, Faulkner enrolled at the Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont.

She began her career at ECU teaching English in 1957. She later became director of Alumni Affairs before rejoining the English Department in September 1966. In 1981, she briefly left ECU to serve as the first female executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party. She held that position for eighteen months until August 1982 when she returned to ECU as the assistant director of the Regional Development Institute, which promotes economic growth and improving quality of life for North Carolinians. The position quickly led to her executive directorship of the institute.

During her time at ECU, Faulkner published an English textbook, Grammar and the Language Arts (1975), along with numerous articles on folklore, local history, historic preservation, and economic development. In 1974, she married Walter Faulkner, a fellow North Carolinian and graduate of ECU. She retired from ECU in 1992. After her retirement, Faulkner continued to support ECU in other roles. In 1994, she was a founding member and the inaugural chair of the university’s Board of Visitors, which advises and assists the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor. Then, in 2003, she was again a founding member and the first chair of the ECU Women’s Roundtable.

Her retirement from ECU was not to be the end of her professional career. In 1993, she entered the North Carolina state government as the Secretary of Revenue. Her appointment came from Governor Jim Hunt, whom she had worked with since the 1960s. The governor called upon Faulkner’s service again in April 1996 when he appointed her Secretary of State, the first woman to serve in that role. She served the state again as Commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles from April 1997 to April 2001. In all of these positions, her appointment came with a directive to reorganize the department and restore it to a position of public trust. The end of her service as commissioner marked her retirement from government service.

Faulkner’s contributions to ECU and local politics have not gone unnoticed. In 1993, she was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award. The university then awarded her with an honorary doctorate in 1998. She received 2002 Citizen of the Year from the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce. In 2007, the ECU Women’s Roundtable presented Faulkner as one of ECU’s 100 Incredible Women. In 2009, she became the first woman to receive East Carolina’s highest award, the Jarvis Medal, which recognizes extraordinary service to the university or society. Most recently, in January 2011, Faulkner was the recipient of the Legends Award from the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, recognizing a person of distinction without whom the history of Greenville and Pitt County could not be written.