Carl J. Stewart, Jr.
North Carolina State Ports Authority
By Henry Bostic
            
The North Carolina State Ports Authority is in the early stages of developing a major new international container terminal in Brunswick County that in the not-too-distant future could move the state into the forefront of ports on the U.S. east coast and create thousands of new jobs in the Tar Heel state.
 
That's the message Ports Authority Chairman Carl J. Stewart, Jr. brought to Charlotte Rotarians at their regular Tuesday meeting held for one day only at Myers Park Country Club. The new port terminal will be able to handle 2 to 2.5 million containers a year. The current Wilmington port handles between 200,000 and 250,000.
 
"North Carolina has the opportunity to become a great player in international commerce," the Gaston County attorney said. Frustrated by a myriad of problems at west coast ports, which now handle the bulk of cargo from Asian companies, the large companies shipping west and east are making plans to come to east coast ports, he said.
 
Most major east coast ports, including those in Norfolk and Charleston that traditionally have dwarfed N.C. ports in Morehead City and Wilmington, have growth constraints that make the proposed new N.C. port a very attractive opportunity, the former Speaker of the N.C. House said. Development of the container facility coincides with a projected doubling of the North American container market between now and 2015.
 
Building a new terminal in Brunswick also provides a better alternative, environmentally and economically, than dredging the Cape Fear River to 48 feet to the Port of Wilmington and enlarging the current port's footprint, the Gaston Rotarian said. Forecast growth in container traffic worldwide would require a deeper channel for Wilmington to remain competitive. The new property is nine miles from the ocean, while Wilmington is 26.
 
Stewart said the state and federal governments have spent $700 million in the past 10 years deepening the channel from 38 to 42 feet. Because of increasingly larger ships, the channel would have had to have been deepened again to 50 feet.
 
Containerized shipping, which has revolutionized world commerce, the Duke graduate noted, was invented 50 years ago by N.C.'s own Malcolm McLean, founder of McLean Trucking. At the time the containers (also known as TEUs) were smaller; ships carried about 1,400 at a time. Today ships routinely carry 8,000 and some newer vessels carry 12,000.
 
The 600 acres of riverfront property in Brunswick County are next to the Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point. Zoned heavy industrial, it includes 4,000 linear feet of frontage on the Cape Fear River for berths with highway and nearby rail access. Pfizer offered the property to the state at an attractive price of $30 million, Stewart said.
A global engineering design firm is managing the development process. Current work includes ongoing community outreach and the development of a business plan and financial strategy to take the project to construction. The Ports Authority is now working on the environmental impact study, which will involve extensive public outreach. At the same time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is performing an economic impact assessment for the dredging which would be part of the project.
 
Meanwhile expansion of the current Port of Wilmington Container Terminal continues. The $130 million program wills double capacity at the Port of Wilmington to meet the demand of increasing container traffic expected during the next 10 years. Four new 100-ft gauge container cranes are now in place.
 
Stewart, who has been out of politics for a number of years since his unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, said he had been reluctant to take on another high profile role before Governor Mike Easley asked him to lead the authority in 2004. He now calls the position "one of the most important he's ever held in the state."
 
Speaking of the new port, Stewart, who grew up in a Gaston mill town, said, "We cannot not do it. It's so exciting to be peeping on tip toes through the keyhole of an unknown world and have no fear of it!" He compared the port's importance for the state to that of the Research Triangle Park which was developed in the 1950s under the leadership of Governor Luther Hodges and has stimulated so much of the high-tech growth in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area as well as statewide.
         
Head Table: Tim Newman, Don Carmichael, Mac McCarley, Luther Moore, Kit Cramer, Russell Ranson;
Invocation: George Thompson;
Visitors & Guests: Ed Turner; Health & Happiness: Phil Volponi; Song: Thomas Moore

• Welcome new members! Emmy Lou Burchette introduced Mary Lynne Calhoun. Mary Lynne is Dean of the College of Education at UNC Charlotte and can be contacted at mlcalhou@uncc.edu. John Snyder introduced Richard Bullard, retired CPA and former member of Dilworth SouthEnd Rotary Club. Contact Richard at rbullard@carolina.rr.com.

R. Powell Majors
December 12, 1906 - November 29, 2007
President, Rotary Cub of Charlotte, 1946
By: Marilynn Bowler
 
One of Charlotte Rotary's favorite statesmen left this earth on Thursday, November 29th leaving each of us wanting just a few more days with the inimitable R. Powell Majors. With his keen mind and clever wit, his insatiable thirst for learning, his unceasing willingness to share his time and counsel, his dynamic personality and his kind, kind heart … Powell was loved by everyone whose life he touched and by the myriads who benefited from his unceasing generosity.
 
With those piercing blue eyes that reflected such intelligence, and the friendly manner that made each of us feel he cared so much for what we had to say, Powell stole our hearts. His acute mind and his amazing longevity intrigued us. We loved to be around him to partake of his wisdom and enjoy his never-ending wit … and to hear him laugh, as he did so often.
 
Whether we asked him to plant a tree or sell a car at CPCC; or read to a senior citizen or diplomatically strategize with some well-known Republicans; or teach Sunday School or chair the investment committee at Dilworth United Methodist Church; or fund-raise for the National Kidney Foundation or the United Way or the Red Cross or the Foundation for the Carolinas … the list goes on and on and on. Powell never turned us down. He did all things with dignity and enthusiasm, and an eagerness that turned each venture into something wonderful. He was a man who wore many hats and did so with style and grace.
 
From enjoying tea and tuna at the YMCA (with Lance crackers on the side, of course!) to helping Sandy stuff envelopes at our Rotary office, no task was too small or too large for Powell. He brought a sense of joy to everything he did, but his own greatest joy was his darling bride, Dot, and his wonderful family. He absolutely adored his family. How proud he was of Dot, his children, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. "Life is all about children," he told me. "Whatever we can do to make their lives more meaningful is worth whatever we have to do to get there."
 
R. Powell Majors is now with God and we're better off for having had him on this earth for almost one-hundred-and-one years. In his own words, spoken just last week, "It's been a good life." Amen.