Helen Powers
 This week’s NC Notable has always been a lady first as well as a lady of firsts.
Asheville’s Helen Powers shattered a lot of glass ceilings in North Carolina. She was the first woman to become a senior vice president at the Bank of Asheville, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Revenue, and inducted to the state’s Business Hall of Fame.
Gov. Jim Martin tapped her in 1985 to head the state revenue department. She persuaded the legislature to allocate $36 million for a new building and her tax amnesty program generated $40 million in unpaid taxes.
Her leadership inspired the Helen Powers Women’s Health Center at Mission Hospital System in Asheville. Powers also raised more than $1 million for a business economics program at Warren Wilson College, where she served on the board for many years.
One admirer said Helen Powers was an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Powers once said that the most lasting monument a person could build is friendship. That’s what makes Helen Powers a lady first and an NC Notable.
Previous NC Notables
01.12.2006 Ty Boyd
01.05.2006 Erskine Bowles
12.29.2005 Henry Frye
12.22.2005 Gene Boyce
12.15.2005 Doris Betts
12.08.2005 Molly Corbett Broad
12.01.2005 John Hope Franklin
11.24.2005 Richard Petty
11.17.2005 Annabelle Lundy Fetterman
11.10.2005 James Baxter Hunt
11.03.2005 Maya Angelou
10.27.2005 Mike Krzyzewski
10.20.2005 Jim Broyhill
10.13.2005 Reynolds Price
10.06.2005 Kay Yow
09.29.2005 Van Eure
09.22.2005 Mary Semans
09.15.2005 John Dornan
09.08.2005 Eva Clayton
09.01.2005 Lois Britt
08.25.2005 Fred Barber
08.18.2005 Julius Chambers
08.11.2005 Martha Guy
08.04.2005 Nido Qubein
07.28.2005 Jeanette Hyde
07.21.2005 Billy Graham
07.14.2005 Lee Smith
07.07.2005 Ralph Ketner
06.30.2005 Thomas Hearn
06.23.2005 John Allison
06.16.2005 Jim Martin
06.02.2005 Darleen Johns
05.26.2005 Hugh Morton
05.19.2005 Bernie Mann
05.12.2005 Orrin H. Pilkey
05.05.2005 William Friday
04.28.2005 Annie Louise Wilkerson
04.21.2005 Martin Lancaster
04.14.2005 Shirley Caesar
04.07.2005 Carl Fox
03.31.2005 Bob Jordan
03.24.2005 Ann T. Denlinger
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