in English from Princeton University in 1941 after completing a senior thesis titled "The Contrasting Values of Dickens and Daudet.

He worked for Vick Chemical Company in 1950 (founded by his grandfather and namesake Lunsford Richardson).

[3][4] As a State judge in 1957, Rich Preyer upheld a ruling that enabled five black children to attend the previously all-white Gillespie Park School in Greensboro.

It was 3 years before the historic Greensboro sit-ins at the Woolworth lunch counters that we have heard so much about and read so much about in our history.

[5] In 1961, Rich Preyer received a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench from his Harvard Law School classmate, a man of privilege again.

[5] Preyer received a recess appointment from President John F. Kennedy on October 7, 1961, to the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, to a new seat created by 75 Stat.

[4] For those Members who hear about North Carolina and wonder why it has this kind of progressive image that is more progressive than some of our other southern States, Governor Terry Sanford and people like Rich Preyer were building that image.

Although Governor Sanford had started steps toward integration efforts, according to Preyer's former press aide, the Ku Klux Klan burned 50 crosses across North Carolina in protest of Rich Preyer's candidacy for governor of the State of North Carolina.

A lot of people say that he won the election because Rich Preyer refused to distance himself from the principles that he thought were important.

He saw the election results are coming in, he could have picked up the phone, called his adversary, his opponent and said, "I concede defeat."

[5] In 1980, after he had lost that race, former Congressman Steve Neal said of Rich Preyer, "There is not a man or woman among us who commands greater respect for intelligence, honesty, integrity and courage of conviction.

[2] Preyer and his wife, Emily, both received the North Carolina Award for Public Service.