DURHAM – After a lengthy illness, Asa T. Spaulding Jr. was laid to rest last week surrounded by friends and family.

Spaulding passed peacefully at his Durham home Oct. 25 at age 81. Though physically gone, his spirit will live on in the community as a businessman, politician, educator and friend.

“I am saddened…He was, like his father, a trailblazer in Durham. His legacy is firm, and he will be missed,” said Omar Beasley, a member of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

Spaulding Jr. is the son of the late Asa T. Spaulding, the former president of N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Company. The Spaulding family has a rich history in Durham and, like his father, Spaulding Jr. made a great impact in a community that was one of the first places in America where blacks could prosper.

Mutual President and CEO James H. Speed Jr. said the company benefitted tremendously from Spaulding Jr.’s support and advice, and he made every effort to demonstrate “the commitment to the legacy that his father was instrumental in leading.”

“Dr. Spaulding was the epitome of what African-American civic and corporate leadership should resemble,” he said.

Spaulding Jr. was an academic who attended Morehouse College and then N.C. Central University, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in business administration. He furthered his studies at Atlanta and New York Universities.

His successful career in broadcasting, both for television and radio, prepared him for multiple political runs. Spaulding was the first black candidate in the South to receive over 500,000 votes in a statewide contest for N.C. Secretary of State as a Republican in 1976. He ran for Durham mayor in 1971.

In a 1979 interview with Walter Weare, Spaulding Jr. said that all the things he had done in life were satisfying.

“You know, I stopped saying that I won't do anything. My wife and I often talk about it. People ask me to do this and ask me to do that, and my first inclination and impulse is to say, ‘No. I feel I've done enough. (I) don't want to be bothered with it.’ And yet through persistence or upon reflection, I yield. And so many times, those have been things that have brought great satisfaction to me,” he said. “In looking back over my life, I guess the one thing I could say —and this is a good way to sum it up — I've seen so many steps that have been taken, no matter what the promptings were that caused it. And I've seen so many different places that (have) led to the chain of events from one thing to another.”

Spaulding Jr. was also a talented public speaker and writer, and wrote a syndicated weekly column published in the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He later developed Asa Spaulding and Associates, a management consulting firm that helped businesses, government and schools with strategic planning, communication and public relations.

 
“Ann and I were saddened to learn of the passing of Asa Spaulding Jr.  He carried on the great legacy of the Spaulding family in his wide-reaching career in insurance, broadcasting, higher education and civic and public service,” Governor Pat McCrory said in a released statement. “He was a true leader in North Carolina and the impact of his service will be felt for years to come.”

Spaulding Jr. leaves a wife, Beulah Listenbee Spaulding, four children, three grandchildren, two brothers (including 2016 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ken Spaulding), one sister, and a host of nieces, nephews and cousins.

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