Graduating from the State Normal Teachers School in Athens in 1921, he enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Completing his studies in 1924, he became a teacher and sports coach at a Baptist high school in Thomasville, North Carolina.

Eleven years later he took on the additional position of director of records and registration, and he held both university jobs until 1961.

[2] In 1961, North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford appointed Lanier state personnel director.

In 1962, the incumbent North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance, Charles F. Gold, died, and Sanford appointed him to fill the vacancy.