This collection contains the papers of English Professor Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives which includes correspondence, manuscripts, photos, theatre programs, and newspaper clippings.
Ralph Hardee Rives was born November 24, 1930 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Ralph Cooper Rives and Lossie Day Hardee Rives. After his mother's early death, his father remarried to Lossie's sister Blanche Hardee. He grew up in Enfield in Halifax County, North Carolina. He received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from East Carolina Teachers' College (East Carolina College after 1951) which he attended from 1948 to 1953. After serving two years in the United States Army, Dr. Rives attended the University of Virginia and taught for three years while completing his Doctorate in Education in Rhetoric degree in 1960. After receiving his doctorate, he joined the faculty of the Department of English at East Carolina College. He retired from East Carolina University in 1992. He also attended summer programmes at Oxford University and the University of London.
Dr. Rives acted with the East Carolina Players, the Wyvern Players, and the St. John Players (both of Georgia) and directed productions in North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.
He was also a noted speaker in the United States and Great Britain and was the founder and first president of the Eastern North Carolina Colonial Branch of the English-Speaking Union. His wide-ranging interests and activities included the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Coastal Plains Development Commission, the Halifax County Historical Association, the Pitt County Historical Society, the Society of the War of 1812 in North Carolina, the North Carolina Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, St. Andrew's Society of North Carolina, and many others.
The Hardee-Rives Award for Dramatic Arts given by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association was endowed by Ralph Hardee Rives in memory of his family, and he made the award's inaugural presentation in 2009. Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives passed away on May 20, 2016.
This collection contains materials related to Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives work as a professor at East Carolina College, and later Unviersity, directing theatre productions, as well as his time at East Carolina Teachers College as a student. The collection contains his correspondence with Louise Greer, an English Professor at East Carolina Teachers College and others. It also contains files from his review of Mary Jo Bratton's book East Carolina University: The Formative Years and his entry for Robert Wright in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. The collection contains theatre programs as well as photos of East Carolina theatre productions. In addiditon there are newspaper clippings related to East Carolina University.
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This collection is a part of Faculty Records.
The Rebel Fall 1958, Winter 1959, Spring 1959, Fall 1959, Satire Supplement, 1968 (UA50-08); ECC Alumni News Letter, Oct. 1964 (UA13-01); Expressions, Issue #1, Spring 1988 (UA50-09); Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs job listing memo, 1988 (UA21-13); Muse Letter, Spring 1987 (UA25-05); Recommendations for the Development of Dramatic Arts, Dr. Lucile Hoerr Charles, 1953 (UA28-01); Library Notes, Number 14, Spring 1982 (UA31-01); Robert Wright Bible (UA02-01)