EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

Governor Pat McCrory

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/governor-pat-mccrory/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:

Former basketball referee. Movie star. News junkie.

GovMcCroryPatrick Lloyd “Pat” McCrory was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1956 and raised in Guilford County, N.C. He attended Jamestown Elementary, Millis Elementary, Jamestown Middle School, and Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, N.C. He attended Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C. where he was elected president of the student body and graduated with degrees in political science and education in 1978. During this time, he also worked nights and weekends as a basketball referee. Once in 1984, McCrory called Michael Jordan for traveling in an ACC All-Star game. After receiving his N.C. teaching certificate, he decided instead to work for Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. where he climbed the ladder to eventually become an economic development executive.

McCrory’s political career began in 1989 when he was elected as an at-large city councilman. In 1995, he was elected mayor of Charlotte and was the city’s longest serving mayor. As mayor, he founded the Mayor’s Mentoring Alliance and personally served as a mentor to Charlotte youth. After losing the 2008 gubernatorial election, McCrory announced that he would not seek an eighth term as Charlotte mayor and joined his brother’s sales consulting firm, McCrory & Company. In 2010, McCrory was named a Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for Charlotte-based law firm Moore & Van Allen PLLC. McCrory was elected governor of North Carolina in 2012. As governor, he reconvened the North Carolina Education Cabinet and created a Teacher Advisory Committee for input on educational issues. Governor McCrory has helped to establish the Center for Safer Schools to protect North Carolina students and signed a bill into law focused on vocational training.

He and his wife, Ann, have been married for about 25 years and have a Labrador retriever mix named Moe. His sister, Linda, is a Raleigh schoolteacher. His favorite book is “1984” by George Orwell, and he likes to listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Guess Who. His favorite movies include “The Godfather,” “Animal House,” and “The Ultimate Gift,” a movie where he played himself as mayor, released in 2006. Governor McCrory describes himself as a “news junkie” and tries to read and learn something new every day.

 

Editor’s Note: EdNC will be posting leadership profiles on the policymakers influencing education in North Carolina. Recently, I met with a member of our General Assembly. He noted that upon becoming a legislator people started treating him like an object. I come from a family that values public service, period. You know our policymakers as politicians. I hope our profiles help you know them better as people. EdNC wants you to be comfortable walking into the legislature, interacting with the legislators, and participating in state government – it is your government after all.