Norris Preyer papers

Norris Watson Preyer was born in Greensboro, NC on February 9, 1926. At the age of 18 he volunteered and spent two years in the Navy's V-12 program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Pennsylvania State College. He graduated from UNC with a B.A in History and earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia. Preyer taught American History for 33 years, first at Guilford College (1953-57) and then at Queens College (now University) from 1957 until his retirement in 1990, serving as Chair of the History Department for most of those years. He specialized in Southern history and the Revolutionary and Early National periods of American history. He published two books, numerous articles and reviews, and served on the board of the Society of Early American History. His articles were published in Essays on Jacksonian America, the Encyclopedia of Southern History, the Biographical Directory of NC History, and the Encyclopedia of NC History. He was chosen a Dana Fellow, received a Fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and was an Honorary Alumnus of Queens College. Norris was an elder at Myers Park Presbyterian Church and a founding board member and later president of Historic Latta Plantation. He was on the Nature Museum Board that founded Discovery Place, on the committee that helped found the Museum of the New South, and served on the board of the Charlotte Museum of History. Preyer died June 5, 2013 in Charlotte, NC.

Source: Norris Preyer obituary, Charlotte Observer June 8, 2013