News

Belk Known For Helping Meet The Needs of Others

(Released 7/28/2010)

GREENSBORO - Jim Belk never grew-up with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth but became the million dollar man for many organizations during his 50 years of community service.

The former BellSouth regional director in Greensboro and later the executive director of the GTCC Foundation retired from the foundation July 28, leaving a legacy of leadership and a savvy for helping many non-profit organizations raise money.

Belk, 72, has a knack for bringing people together to work on common goals, according to foundation board member Ralph K. Shelton, a Greensboro businessman.

"Jim is very good at what he does, knows a lot of influential people and has strong enough relations with those individuals to make the necessary asks ...." said Henri Fourrier of the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Belk is chairman of the convention board.

"Jim has very effective and strong leadership attributes," said Hayes Clement, a GTCC Foundation board member. "He has developed long-term relationships with people," Clement said.

Belk, whose first job as a child was working in his father's textile mill in the basement of his home, is described by his friend Lee Kinard as a "common man who could identify with the needs of others."

After a 40-year career with BellSouth and another 10 years with the GTCC Foundation, Belk has served on many boards and committees and leaves a multitude of accomplishments behind. Along the way he also endowed a golf scholarship at his alma mater and worked behind the scenes in state political campaigns. He is especially close to former Gov. Jim Hunt.

His dedication to education hasn't been confined to UNC-Chapel Hill. He also served on the boards of visitors at N.C. A&T University, Elon University and Guilford College.

Most Greensboro organizations in need of help - from the United Way to the YMCA - turned to Belk for leadership through the years.

One person who sought Belk out was GTCC president Don Cameron, who asked Belk to head the school's fund-raising foundation after retiring at BellSouth.

"Jim has provided tremendous leadership to the GTCC Foundation, and has made numerous contributions to the growth and development of the college," Cameron said. "The students who receive scholarships from our foundation will be the major beneficiaries of his tireless efforts," he said.

Belk's leadership has enhanced the GTCC Foundation because "he brought great credibility....and was well-respected in Greensboro and known throughout Guilford County," said foundation board member Jim Morgan, who has worked with Belk in several other community activities.

Belk admits that he loves a challenge.

"I'm a very competitive person. I don't like losing," he said. That moxie goes back to the days when as a 135-pound athlete he lettered in three sports at Hickory High School.

That spirit carried over when he entered UNC-Chapel Hill not knowing how he could pay for his education. "My father's hosiery mill hadn't run in nine months before I went to college. I didn't have any (financial) help," Belk said.

"I went to Carolina with my suitcase and the shirt on my back," he said. He worked his way through the university.

Working seven nights a week "cleaning up" at the university's Monogram Club, was a breeze compared to his childhood chore of pulling socks in his father's textile mill. Belk, a business major, gained a partial scholarship and also earned Phi Beta Kappa distinction.

After completing his junior year, Belk married his high school sweetheart, the former Doris Little. "Doris was a spark when I first met her. She's still my spark today. That flame will never go out," Belk said.

Much of his job as regional director for BellSouth in Greensboro was to connect with community leaders, and find ways to make contributions to the area.

The personable Belk became a natural leader.

"Jim has played a major and significant role in Greensboro for many years," said Shelton, who also noted that Belk has a knack for getting "good people to serve on the foundation board."

Clement said Belk got him involved in community events soon after Clement moved here in 1986. "He got me working with Communities in Schools," said Clement who remains on the board of that program. He also got Clement involved in the United Way and the Hayes-Taylor YMCA fundraisings.

Shelton said, "Jim has done everything possible to help the disadvantaged in our community. He engaged himself in some issues that others would have quickly walked away from," Shelton said.

"His record of civic service exemplifies individualism and commitment. He models the self-conscious citizen living the moral life and building the good society," said Kinard, former WFMY-TV news anchor, who nominated Belk for the 2002 National Conference for Community and Justice for the Piedmont Triad's Brotherhood/Sisterhood citation.

The boy who "pulled socks" for 75-cents an hour has spent most of his life raising millions of dollars for others - and the $6 million raised for the 1987 Greensboro United Way was only one of many significant fundraising drives that he directed.

His life has been spent helping answer the financial fundraising needs of an endless number of organizations. He has been honored by several of the many organizations where he is a member.

The monument of his career may be his role in not only raising the final $1.6 million for the capital campaign for the Hayes-Taylor YMCA but in "bringing people together," according to Clement and others.

Kinard explained Belk's role in helping the YMCA:

"It was as chairman of the Hayes-Taylor YMCA capital campaign that Jim provided his finest service to the Greensboro Community.

"In the wake of two unsuccessful campaigns to renovate Hayes-Taylor, themAfrican-American community perceived that the greater Greensboro community was ignoring its responsibility to revitalize this neighborhood institution. Distrust between the races and dissension over the total YMCA operation prevailed.

"....it took him more than a year to break the barriers dividing black and white Greensboro over this issue. He brought together community leaders who learned to share a viable project. The campaign Jim led raised $1.6 million and Hayes-Taylor was completed."

Belk said he is going to spend more time with wife, his children and his grandchildren. "I am giving up everything; I'm ready to begin another chapter in my life," he said.

The former telephone company executive has been the man to call for nearly 50 years when a "good cause" in Guilford County needed a fundraising leader.

"I never considered myself a fundraiser," he said. Yet, Belk never was too busy to answer a call for help.

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