RALEIGH (Sept. 22, 2021) – State senators from both parties paid tribute yesterday to Marc Basnight, who led the NC Senate for 18 years and directed billions in state support to North Carolina’s university and transportation systems.
“Marc came from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential leaders in our state’s history,” said Sen. Don Davis, D-Greene. “His life was about people – the people of North Carolina.
“With limited formal education, he became an advocate for our state’s university system. He understood the value of an education,” Davis said.
Basnight is credited with pushing through a $3.1 billion bond issue on behalf of the UNC and NC Community College Systems in 2000 – the biggest higher-education bond issue in U.S. history at the time – as well as $180 million to build the NC Cancer Hospital and $50 million a year for the University Cancer Research Fund.
“Marc left his mark on our state. He wanted to help people,” said Davis.
Gov. Roy Cooper – who served as Senate majority leader under Basnight in the 1990s – as well as former Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and 30 other former members sat on the floor as the Senate passed a memorial resolution. Former Gov. Beverly Perdue and the late U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan also earned leadership roles when Basnight led the Senate.1
His daughters unveiled a portrait of Basnight – who died of ALS at age 73 in December 2020 – that will hang in the Senate chamber.
Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, said that even though Basnight bragged about being last in his graduating class at Manteo High School, he was a voracious reader who sent Blue a subscription to The Economist magazine and gave him an insightful book about John Brown.
Basnight wanted North Carolina’s universities to have a national reputation, Blue said – he was not about mediocrity, and he helped North Carolina adapt to the 21st century.
“This man had one of the greatest appetites for learning as anyone I’ve ever met,” he said.
SEN. PHIL BERGER, R-Rockingham, the current Senate president pro tem, agreed.
“Every legislator that served with him learned from him, myself included,” Berger said.
Berger noted Basnight’s efforts in health care, such as the NC Cancer Hospital in Chapel Hill and funding for cancer research after his wife, Sandy, died of cancer.
“Those things wouldn’t have happened but for Marc Basnight,” Berger said.
SPEAKERS ALSO NOTED Basnight’s dedication to northeastern North Carolina, the environment and good roads.
“He had salt water in his veins,” said Blue. “Few people that I have known had as deep and abiding love of the North Carolina coast.”
Given Basnight’s insistence on road projects to connect with the coast, “Takes me about half the time to get to the Outer Banks as it did before Marc went on the Board of Transportation,” Blue said.
They also noted his habit of stopping at country stores, farms, businesses and restaurants on his trips between Manteo and Raleigh.
“It wasn’t show,” said Blue. “It was genuinely to see what people were thinking.”
Through six years on the Board of Transportation and 13 terms in the state Senate, said Berger, “Marc never forgot where he came from…. He loved people, and it was clear that people loved him back, without question.”
Davis quoted a letter Basnight wrote for his daughters to read at the dedication of the 2.8-mile Marc Basnight Bridge over Oregon Inlet in 2019:
“Bridges bring people together and never divide.”
“Marc was that bridge for all of us,” Davis said.
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