Eight distinguished North Carolinians have been chosen to receive the state’s highest civilian honor, the North Carolina Award, two of which have strong ties to the coast.
The North Carolina General Assembly established the award in 1961 to recognize significant contributions to the state and nation in the fields of fine arts, literature, public service and science. The awards have been presented annually since 1964.
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For their contributions to science are environmental attorney, photographer and advocate Tom Earnhardt and astronaut Christina Koch, who grew up in Onslow County.
“Over the past six decades, the North Carolina Award has been given to many remarkable North Carolinians,” said Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “This year’s awardees join an illustrious list of people who have benefitted North Carolina through their impressive accomplishments in public service, literature, science, and the arts. This year’s event will benefit our neighbors in Western North Carolina who were harmed by the devastating storm.”
Gov. Roy Cooper is to present the awards at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Raleigh Marriott City Center. All proceeds from ticket sales for the awards ceremony will go to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund for Hurricane Helene recovery. Event tickets are by invitation only.
The information below from North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has been edited.
Science: Tom Earnhardt
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Earnhardt’s career includes time as an assistant attorney general at the N.C. Department of Justice, assistant secretary of the N.C. Department of Administration, and as a professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law.
In 1971, Earnhardt was one of the first attorneys hired at the N.C. Department of Justice in the “new arena” of environmental law. While working with the late Jim Holshouser, who served as governor from 1973 to 1977, he played a key role in helping to preserve critical natural areas, including the New River in northwestern North Carolina and the southernmost Outer Banks, today’s Cape Lookout National Seashore.
He is a board member of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review and Earnhardt has also served on the boards of numerous natural resource organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the North Carolina Botanical Garden.
He is the writer, host and coproducer of the long-running PBS series “Exploring North Carolina,” which highlights the importance of our natural heritage in the life of every North Carolinian.
Science: Christina Koch
Christina Koch, who grew up in Jacksonville, was selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2013. She set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with 328 days in space, participated in the first all-female spacewalk, and was a flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 through 61.
Koch is a graduate of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics and North Carolina State University. Before becoming an astronaut, she worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland as an electrical engineer, contributing to instruments for various NASA space science missions.
Throughout her career, Koch has engaged in educational outreach, technical instruction, and volunteer tutoring, demonstrating her dedication to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. As part of the Artemis II mission scheduled for 2025, Koch will become the first woman to participate in a lunar mission.
Fine Arts: The Avett Brothers
Brothers Scott and Seth Avett and their longtime friend Bob Crawford lead the folk rock band The Avett Brothers. From Concord, their partnership began when the two brothers merged Seth Avett’s high school band, Margo, and Scott Avett’s college band, Nemo, and released three albums as Nemo. After the group disbanded, Scott and Seth continued to write acoustic music together.
In 2001 stand-up bassist Bob Crawford joined the Avetts, and the band released its first full-length album, “Country Was” in 2002. The band has been nominated for three Grammy awards and been nominated for and won several awards from the Americana Music Association, including Duo/Group of the Year and New/Emerging Artist of the Year awards in 2007.
Literature: Frank A. Bruni Jr.
Bruni has been a prominent journalist for more than three decades, principally at The New York Times, where his various roles have included op-ed columnist, White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief and chief restaurant critic.
He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar and wrote for the student paper, the Daily Tar Heel.
As the Times’s first openly gay op-ed columnist, in 2016 Bruni was honored by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association with the Randy Shilts Award for his lifetime contribution to LGBTQ equality. Bruni is the author of five bestselling books including the most recent, “The Age of Grievance,” an examination of America’s political dysfunction and culture wars.
He became a full professor at Duke University in 2021, teaching media-oriented classes in the Sanford School of Public Policy. Now living in North Carolina, he continues to write his popular weekly newsletter for the New York Times and to produce occasional essays as a contributing opinion writer for the newspaper.
Fine Arts: William Henry Curry
Curry has had a “trailblazing role” as an African American in classical music, and is currently the music director and conductor of the Durham Symphony Orchestra.
From 1998 to 2016, he was the resident conductor and Summerfest artistic director of the North Carolina Symphony. During his career, he has conducted some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the major opera companies of New York, Chicago and Houston.
Curry is also a composer, and his works have been played by many of America’s finest orchestras. He has been a mentor for young musicians at the Peabody Conservatory, the Baltimore School of Arts, and many music schools in North Carolina.
Public Service: Dr. Harold L. Martin
Martin served as the 12th chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University from 2009-2024. He is the first alumnus to lead the institution.
His more than 40 years experience in education made him a key figure in N.C. A&T’s growth to become the largest of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, and one of the country’s top public research institutions.
His prior roles include senior vice president for Academic Affairs for the University of North Carolina System, and held leadership roles at Winston-Salem State University, where he served as the 11th chief administrator and seventh chancellor.
Since the award’s inception, more than 300 notable men and women have been honored by the state of North Carolina. Past recipients include William Friday, James Taylor, Etta Baker, Charles Kuralt, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Eric Church, Selma Burke, and Branford Marsalis.
