CHAPEL HILL -- Dan Pollitt, a civil rights lawyer who spent a lifetime not only teaching constitutional law but also striving himself to adhere to the tenets of the Constitution, died Friday after several months of declining health.
The longtime Chapel Hill resident, a genteel advocate for social justice known for his love of family, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Tar Heel basketball and Holden Beach, was 88.
Pollitt, a native of Washington, and the son of two lawyers, liked to remind his family and friends in his later years that he had been involved in all the social justice movements of his life.
During the civil rights movement, he and his children spent many nights on picket lines. He fought for integration of the Varsity Theater and other businesses in downtown Chapel Hill in the 1950s and joined others in suing the University of North Carolina, his employer, to open classrooms to all races. He advocated for gay rights in frequent opinion pieces to newspapers and fought for abolition of the death penalty.
"Beyond just teaching the Constitution, he thought everybody should live the Constitution, and he did," said state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, an Orange County Democrat who married Pollitt in April.
Pollitt, the father of three and grandfather of five, went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut and got his degree in three years so he could join the Marines in World War II. After his military service, he went to Cornell University law school and embarked on a career where he could not only put his arguments before the highest court in the country - the U.S. Supreme Court - but also the many courts of public opinion.
His first job took him back to Washington, but he soon set out for universities across the country where he could have a hand in educating generations of lawyers. Pollitt landed in Chapel Hill in 1957 with his first wife, Jean Ann Rutledge, the daughter of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice whom he wed in 1951 and stayed married to until her death 55 years later. He taught at the UNC-CH law school and immersed himself in a Southern town with a reputation for progressive politics.
"He was the most genteel radical there ever was," said Bill Massengale, a Chapel Hill lawyer who studied under the eager mentor.
Gene Nichol, a former UNC-CH law school dean who now leads the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, went to see Pollitt shortly before his death. Pollitt, aware that Nichol was to give a speech later that day, preferred to focus on social justice topics that might resonate with a crowd instead of talk about his health.
"He's actually my biggest hero," Nichol said. "I've never known someone so committed to the issue of social justice in every pore of his body."
Numerous groups recognized Pollitt for his work. Among the awards was theOrder of the Long Leaf Pine, a state recognition.
"In a voice always soft spoken, with a manner invariably genial, Dan represented the finest progressive social and political values," UNC-CH law school dean Jack Boger said in a note circulated Friday. "He was a generous and caring teacher who opened his home and life to his students, and a scholar whose writings conveyed both the legal principles and the deeper animating spirit of constitutional law, labor law and civil rights."
A memorial service will be scheduled this spring at Community Church of Chapel Hill.
Memorial contributions may be made to the UNC-CH law school Dan Pollitt Fellowship, which supports summer clerkships for law students to work in social justice. Donations may be sent to the attention of Brandon Wright, School of Law Annex, 101 E. Weaver St., Suite 245, Carrboro, NC 27510.
