Harnett County

Rolling from the Piedmont into the Sandhills, Harnett County was established on Feb. 07, 1855, and is a primarily rural farming area bisected by Interstate-95. It has a population of and a employment of (%).

The county seat is Dunn, located about 40 minutes from NC State’s main campus.

 

Central Carolina Community College serves Harnett, Chatham and counties. Harnett has a main CCCC branch in Dunn and seven satellite facilities around the county.

Also located in Harnett County is private Campbell University, located in Buies Creek.

Pride of the Pack

Funny Couple

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are better known as Rhett & Link, the creators and hosts of the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning. The elementary school classmates from Buies Creek roomed together at NC State, with McLaughlin graduating in 2000 with a civil engineering degree and Neal in 2001 with a degree in industrial engineering.

After a few years of working in their fields, the duo quit to embark on a career in online entertainment. They run multiple YouTube channels, and their signature comedy and talk show, Good Mythical Morning, has more than 15.6 million subscribers and almost 6 billion views. Rhett & Link ranked No. 22 in Business Insider’s 2012 list of the 25 most creative people in advertising.

The comic pair has since branched out from YouTube with a podcast called Ear Biscuits and the book Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality: A Field Guide to Curiosity, Creativity, and Tomfoolery.

Dunn's Military Father

War repeatedly interrupted “Father of the Airborne Command” William Carey Lee’s time at NC State. He enrolled in 1915 but left before graduation to become a military instructor and then enlist in the Army. He returned to the university to teach military science in 1922 and left again in 1926 to serve overseas. He eventually graduated from NC State with an education degree in 1936.

On the orders of the U.S. War Department, Lee was responsible for organizing a test platoon of paratroopers in 1940, which led to the creation of the U.S. Airborne Command. His paratroopers joined Allied forces in a battle that marked a turning point in World War II. On June 6, 1944, the 101st Division leaped and landed behind enemy lines in Normandy, crying out “Bill Lee” to honor their founder as they fell from the sky.

Lee retired December of that year and returned to his hometown of Dunn, where he spent his remaining days as a community and civic leader. However, the war strategist and veteran earned one more NC State University degree: an honorary doctorate of military science.

Lee Residence Hall on NC State’s campus is named in his memory and the William C. Lee Military Museum is located at his former home in downtown Dunn.

[Read more about the “Father of the Airborne Command.”]

A Lifetime of Learning

Arther Carlyle Campbell seemed destined for a career in higher education. His father, James Campbell, founded Campbell University in the family’s hometown of Buies Creek. Arthur Campbell earned two degrees from Wake Forest College in 1911 and 1916, studied at Columbia University and received an honorary law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1929, plus another from Wake Forest in 1950.

Campbell became president of Coker College in South Carolina in 1925, then joined the English department at North Carolina State College in 1937. He served as a professor and department head until 1939, when he became president of Meredith College, a post he held until he retired in 1966.

During his years in higher ed, Campbell served as a member of the State Education Commission and an advisory member of the North Carolina Board of Higher Education. He also served as president of both the North Carolina College Conference and the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

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