‘What a wonderful life’: Bill Hensley, NC’s ‘dean of PR,’ remembered for generous spirit
When Bill Hensley died, he left his family a list of people to call with the news.
“I called several of them,” his son Bruce told the Observer, “and four of those people — some of them quite prominent now — said these words: ‘Meeting your dad changed my life.’”
As the oldest son who followed his father into the family business, he knew firsthand that his father was a believer in mentorship. But he still said he was “stunned” to hear the same refrain repeated by so many.
“He was very gregarious and warm and open,” Bruce said, “and he was generous in sharing his knowledge and his skills to help others rise, rise to the best people they can be.”
A vast, and varied, career
Bill Hensley, who died in Charlotte on March 11 at the age of 96, wore many hats in his life, much of which was spent in his native North Carolina.
As a Seabee in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he helped build the runway the Enola Gay would take off from on its mission to drop an atomic bomb on Japan.
Later, he worked as a sportswriter for the Asheville Citizen. That was when he saw the news that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had lifted the requirement that agents be either accountants or lawyers by trade, and he decided to try his hand at law enforcement.
He did his training in New Haven, Connecticut where he had immediate success.
“In his first month on the job, he apprehended two fugitives in the same day,” Bruce said.
He moved on to the Chicago Bureau — where he found it too cold — but soon returned to his home state to help his beloved alma mater, Wake Forest, navigate a major milestone: joining the ACC.
“One of the requirements for ACC schools was they each had to have a sports information director, which is basically a publicist, a PR person. So Wake called and offered him the job, and he accepted,” Bruce said.
While at Wake, Bill got to celebrate the school’s 1955 College World Series win and befriend another prominent alumnus, golfer Arnold Palmer. Bill knew of Palmer not just because of his golf game, but because he had dated Bill’s wife, the former Carol Moore, who died in 2006.
“One of his first big assignments was writing about Arnold Palmer, because Arnold started winning all these tournaments,” Bruce said. “Dad thought, ‘As a phenomenon, this is going to be great to promote.’ … He and Arnold became very good friends.”
After some time in the same role for NC State athletics, Bill transitioned into other public relations roles.
As director of Travel and Tourism for North Carolina, he brought “Welcome Centers,” now more commonly referred to as rest areas, to the state.
“When Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia, he started the Welcome Center program down there to capture all the tourists that were coming to Florida. (Carter) said, ‘Well let’s put these Welcome Centers in on the interstates and capture all these damn Yankees that are coming down here through our state to go Florida,’” Bruce said. “And (Bill) convinced the governor of North Carolina, Gov. (Dan) Moore at the time, that we should do that. So (Bill) went down, and he stole the woman who was in charge of the Welcome Centers in Georgia to come start them in North Carolina.”
Bill also made headlines in Charlotte as the chairperson of the successful campaign for “liquor by the drink” in 1978. That win led to a photograph of him burning a paper bag over “a 55 gallon drum” in a hotel that ran in the Observer and was picked up by wire services.
“He heard about that bag burning photo for years from people all over the country,” Bruce said.
Bill’s professional accomplishments earned him the nickname “the dean of PR” and brought many accolades, including induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Journalism/Public Relations Hall of Fame.
His career also opened doors for another of his hobbies, travel.
‘The damnedest thing’
Bill Hensley almost visited all 50 states and seven continents, according to Bruce — just missing North Dakota and Antarctica. He used many of his travels abroad to promote North Carolina.
“He would show up with some folks from the Cherokee tribe, show up with some moonshiners, some stock car racers and some bluegrass musicians,” Bruce said. “This was 60 years ago, so there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot going on in the state. But he would look for those little gems and polish them. And it worked.”
While many of his travels were work trips, Bill also loved to travel with his family, made up of his four children, their spouses and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Bruce said. A favorite destination was London, which, according to Bruce, Bill visited 19 times.
“It was the damnedest thing,” Bruce said. “We would be walking down the street (in London). He knew it like the back of his hand, and he’d have people coming up to him. He wore a little cap, so, like, he looked British. And people would come up to him and ask him for directions in London, and he’d tell him, ‘You go down here and take this right here.’ And on, I think, three occasions we were actually walking down the streets of London, and he runs into people he knows.”
Another favorite destination was South Dakota, where the family would gather regularly for a pheasant hunting expedition. It’s a tradition that will continue.
“We’re going to rename it the Bill Hensley Memorial Pheasant Hunting Trip,” Bruce said.
‘What a wonderful life’
At a Wednesday memorial service at Myers Park United Methodist Church, Bill’s family and friends filled up pews as an organist performed hymns Bill Hensley, himself, picked for the occasion.
Bill’s friend and minister, Rev. Bill Roth, shared scripture and recalled the lunches they would share, and both he and Bruce noted the “attention to detail” in Bill’s “death-related instructions.”
“I would like for Bruce to give a eulogy if he desires,” Bill had written. “Keep it short, sweet. Mention that I was cute. You might want to have a reception at the church after the service. If you want a gathering for family at someone’s house, so be it. I won’t be there.”
Bruce stuck to his father’s guidance, thanking the assembled congregation for coming on behalf of the family and sharing a few stories of Bill’s love of humor as a parenting tool.
“What a wonderful life he had indeed, and he would be the first to affirm that. He never met a stranger, and he was always the bond in groups of people who seemed to bring everyone together and make them comfortable and happy,” Bruce told the gathered.
“That’s a great talent, and legacy, to have.”
