The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government

The Good Government Man captures the life of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the founder and first director of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina. Inspired by visionary President Edward Kidder Grahamuwhose death during the influenza pandemic of 1918 devastated the campusuCoates adopted as his life mission his hero's dream of the university in service to the state. Coates's career coincided with an exciting and transformative era in the history of UNC.

With raw determination, stubborn independence, and sheer audacity, Coates created the Institute of Government, now School of Government, to prepare elected officials, government employees, and private citizens for public service.

Covington presents Coates in all his guises. Passionate and persuasive on the stump, Coates tirelessly recruited anyone who would listen to his cause, including state and university leaders. Their support would prove essential to the ultimate success of the Institute. To admirers, Coates was a genius of striking originality. Like many with a strong sense of mission, he could also be exasperatingly insistent on getting his way in all matters, great or small. His story, however, is unarguably an important one, and the value of the institute he founded, the first program of its type in the nation, is inestimable.

Howard E. Covington Jr. of Greensboro is the author or coauthor of more than fifteen works of North Carolina history and biography. In 2004, Favored by Fortune received the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association's Ragan Old North State Award for best non-fiction by a North Carolina writer.