Obituary: George Bailey Autry
CHAPEL HILL - George Bailey Autry, an interpreter of Southern trends and a creative champion of policies to improve the prospects of poor people and poor places, died in his home Sunday. Autry, who was 62, served for 32 years as president of MDC Inc., a nonprofit research firm that has worked to develop the economy of North Carolina and the region through expanding educational opportunities and workforce training. Under Autry's leadership, MDC published several reports that had wide influence in shaping public opinion and government policies: "The State of the South" in 1996 and 1998, "America's Shame, America's Hope: Twelve Million Youth at Risk," which led to a public television special by Bill Moyers, and "Shadows in the Sunbelt," which popularized the term "buffalo hunt" as it warned the South against reliance on low-wage, low-skill industry.
In addition, Autry traveled extensively across the South and worked with a broad network of business executives, government officials, foundation boards and staff, and leaders of community colleges and universities. He regularly repeated his core conviction; "Education is the antidote to poverty." Autry believed that his organization's research should be applied to solve problems facing the people of North Carolina and the South. As a result, he helped design the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, and he served as the chief of staff of the state commission that worked in the 1980's to bolster the North Carolina Community College System. Among a wide array of initiatives, Autry was instrumental in the creation of the Mississippi- based Foundation for the Mid-South and in devising the recently enacted workforce development law in Louisiana.
Autry was born on March 14, 1937 in Wilmington, the son of John Murchison Autry and Audrienne Bailey Autry. He was graduated from Duke University with an A.B. degree in 1958 and from Duke Law School with a J.D. degree in 1961. Duke University has selected him for an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at its commencement next month. Shortly after graduating from law school, Autry moved to Washington for a congressional fellowship and then became chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, then chaired by Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. of North Carolina.
Autry returned to his home state in 1967, when he became the founding president of the North Carolina Manpower Development Corporation, which subsequently shortened its name to MDC Inc. as it took on a regional scope. In the 1960s, he served as a campaign aide to former President Lyndon B. Johnson and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He took a leave of absence from MDC to manage the campaign of Luther Hodges Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for the 1978 Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
At the time of his death, Autry was serving on the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, on the board of directors of the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood in Cary, and on the board of The Pew Charitable Trusts Center for Civic Journalism in Washington. He was a member of the Watauga Club. At MDC, Autry was working on a "State of the Carolinas" report for The Duke Endowment. He was also directing a joint MDC-Ford Foundation project called the Rural Community College Initiative.
Autry is survived by his wife, Bess Powell Autry of Chapel Hill; his son, George B. Autry Jr. of Wake Forest; his daughter, Ret Autry Boney of Raleigh; his daughter-in-law, Stephanie Hutchins Autry; his son-in-law, Leslie N. Boney III, his grandchild, George B. Autry III, and his sister, Isabel Freeman of Greensboro.
The funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday in Duke Chapel, with William H. Willimon, dean of the chapel, presiding. Burial will follow in Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery. A visitation was held at Walkers Funeral Home, 120 West Franklin Street, in Chapel Hill on Monday. The family requests memorial gifts to MDC Inc. for the President's Endowment.
Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill.