Joe Herzenberg was one of the first people I met when I came to Chapel Hill. So many people can probably say that.

I never got close to the former Town Council member. He kept the private side private. Frustratingly so.

He was invaluable to me, though, when I was at the Chapel Hill Herald in the late '80s and early '90s. He'd stop by often and share story tips. He always had good ideas about important issues and never used the meetings to pump himself up, as so many might have done.

Still, when he resigned for not paying his income taxes -- a recall loomed -- it felt like a member of the family had been disgraced. Joe may not have been my friend -- reporters and editors have to watch out for that kind of thing -- but for so many and for so long he was the face of Chapel Hill. He breathed it.

So, many of us figured Joe would run again. He'd been the top vote getter his last time around, had done so much good for the community, and besides Chapel Hill was a forgiving place. He'd even said so in his farewell. But Joe never did seek office again. Maybe he didn't want to face the ugliness a campaign would surely have drawn out.

A few months ago I invited Joe to speak to our staff about the civil rights era in Chapel Hill after reading the book "The Free Men" by John Ehle. We invite guests to our meetings once or twice a month. I watched as the former history professor told the young reporters about a Franklin Street they knew primarily for its basketball and Halloween crowds. They asked more questions of Joe than of any guest before or since.

Joe's answering machine used to invite you to leave messages for him and Harriet Levy. It was a joke. Harriet was his cat. I never met the cat. I'm glad I met Joe.

10/29/07 at 17:38
From Doug Fergsuon, a former UNC student leader now assistant regional counsel for the U.S. Dept. Health and Human Services (via e-mail)

I lost touch with Joe when I moved to Chicago, but his death has hit me pretty hard nonetheless. Your comment on his old answering machine message made me hear Joe's voice as if I had just called him this morning.

For the longest time, I thought Joe lived with a woman at his old place on Cobb Terrace. Joe eventually filled me in on the joke. Thanks for reminding me! Your comment gave me a little chuckle on what has otherwise been a sad day.

10/30/07 at 14:15
Given Joe's love of this book and the mention of it above, I'm posting this release just in from UNC News Services

'Free Men' reunion recalls Chapel Hill desegregation

CHAPEL HILL - Participants in and witnesses to desegregation protests
that rocked Chapel Hill in the 1960s will speak in a free public program
at 5:45 p.m. Nov. 8 in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's
Wilson Library.

They will recall their experiences and celebrate republication of John
Ehle's "The Free Men," a landmark book about the era that was first
released in 1965. Winston-Salem publisher Press 53 reissued the book in
February. Ehle will participate in the UNC program with:

* Karen Parker, an activist in the 1963-64 sit-ins and the first
black female to graduate from UNC, now an editor with the Winston-Salem
Journal;

* Wayne King, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with the Detroit
Free Press and New York Times, who covered the protests as an editor at
the Daily Tar Heel. King wrote a new afterword for the new edition of
Ehle's book;

* Jim Wallace, a UNC alumnus and retired curator of photography for
the Smithsonian, whose photographs appear in the book; and

* Josh and Matt Dunne, sons of the late John B. Dunne, a UNC
undergraduate jailed for his protests.

Attendees will be able to examine archival selections from the
manuscripts department in Wilson Library, home to the papers of Ehle,
Parker and Dunne. On view will be photographs of events depicted in "The
Free Men"; the journal in which Parker reflected on her experiences as a
student and demonstrator in 1963-64 ("On Saturday the 14th, I decided to
go to jail. It was no fun at all."); and a 1964 letter Dunne wrote on a
paper towel to his parents from the Orange County Jail, describing
sentences imposed on him and conditions in the jail.

The Bull's Head Bookshop will offer copies of "The Free Men" for sale at
the program, co-sponsored by the library and Press 53. For program
information, contact Friends of the Library at (919) 962-4207 or
liza_terll@unc.edu. For an online exhibit about the protests, "I Raised
My Hand to Volunteer: Students Protest in 1960s Chapel Hill," visit
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/exhibits/protests/.