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CHAPEL HILL — Dr. Christopher C. Fordham III, the only medical doctor to serve as chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill, died Thursday, university officials said. The Greensboro native was 81.

“He had an uncommon sense of devotion to this place,” UNC President Emeritus William C. Friday told The News & Observer of Raleigh on Friday. “There were no limits on his hours and dedication. He lived the work.”

As chancellor from 1980 to 1988, Fordham oversaw a major revision of the undergraduate curriculum and led the push to significantly boost faculty research funding, which grew from $56 million to $105 million.

“(UNC) is such a special place,” Fordham said in July 1988 when he stepped down as chancellor. “It represents the best thing that the people of North Carolina have that they built themselves.

“God gave them their mountains and beautiful beaches and their gorgeous Piedmont, but the people of North Carolina built their university,” he said in an interview with the News & Record.

Under Fordham’s leadership, the state increased the university’s budget. He renewed the focus on private fundraising, putting Carolina among the nation’s top 20 public institutions for contributions and increasing the endowment from $30 million to $130 million.

He also oversaw construction of several major campus buildings, including the Dean E. Smith Center and Davis Library.

“Chancellor Fordham is rightly regarded as the driving force behind a period of extraordinary success at Carolina,” UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a statement Thursday. “We will never forget his deep love for this place.”

Fordham’s roots in Greensboro were well established and known through his family’s store — Fordham’s Drug Store — which was opened in 1898 by his grandfather, C.C. Fordham Sr., and run by the family until 1969.

The store was a downtown institution along South Elm Street and closed in 2002.

That store held a special place in Fordham’s heart. It was where he took interest in the medical field while working there as a soda jerk and attending Greensboro Senior High School in the 1940s.

Fordham began as a UNC undergraduate before joining what was then a two-year medical program and going on to earn a premed degree as well as a certificate in medicine in 1949.

e received a medical degree from Harvard University in 1951.

After an internship at Georgetown University Hospital and a residency at Boston City Hospital, Fordham returned to Chapel Hill as a senior assistant resident in medicine and a fellow at the new four-year medical school.

After two years as an Air Force medical officer, he launched a private medical practice in Greensboro.

He came back to Chapel Hill as an instructor, professor and associate dean in the medical school. The Medical College of Georgia recruited him in 1969 to become dean and vice president for medicine. Fordham returned to UNC in 1971, becoming dean of the School of Medicine and a professor in the school until 1979.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter asked him to be assistant secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, which he turned down to remain at UNC’s medical school.

Fordham is survived by his wife, Barbara, three daughters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill.
The university plans to ring the bell of South Building, which houses the chancellor’s office, six times Sunday to recognize Fordham’s service as the school’s sixth chancellor. The university also will lower the North Carolina flag in Polk Place to half-staff this weekend to honor Fordham.

Staff writer Ryan Seals contributed to this report.