Local man’s name adorns visitor center

When Carroll Joyner left his family’s Sampson County farm in the early 1950s, he was prepared to work for his supper.

During four years as a student at North Carolina State College, now N.C. State University, Joyner earned his daily bread by washing dishes in the kitchen at Leazar Hall.

On Thursday, he was back on campus. But he wasn’t there to wash dishes. He was cutting the ribbon to officially open the E. Carroll Joyner Visitor Center.

Joyner, who lived in Raleigh until recently when he moved to Youngsville, looked perfectly at ease as more than 100 people who turned out to dedicate the building took turns thanking him for his support of the effort and praising his leadership.

Joyner made his fortune in business through real estate investments, restaurant ownership and as vice president of Golden Corral during a period of unprecedented growth in the chain’s history.

In an interview Monday, he talked about the importance of giving back.

“If you think that all the material possessions you gather during your lifetime will make people remember you, you’re mistaken,” Joyner said.

Joyner, who can now give to charitable causes with abandon, remembers when times weren’t so easy.

Though he had a dormitory room adjacent to Riddick Stadium, where N.C. State played football during his college days, Joyner said he never saw more than one or two games during his college career.

“Saturdays were a day I could work seven or eight hours, and each hour was another meal,” Joyner said.

So he spent his Saturdays and other days of the week washing dishes in what was then the school cafeteria.

He also worked out a deal with the college’s procurement office to supply the kitchen with fresh vegetables from his father’s Sampson County farm.

The visitor center isn’t Joyner’s first foray into philanthropy. He donated a 37-acre tract near Louisburg to the Tar River Land Conservancy that will be the home to Joyner Park.

Wake Forest has its own Joyner Park, a 117-acre tract of land off Harris Road, which the town bought from Joyner.

Carroll Joyner began pushing the idea of a visitor center at N.C. State about 15 years ago after visiting similar facilities on other college campuses.

“It occurred to me that if we wanted everyone to know that we had a world-class university, we needed something like that to serve as a front door,” Joyner said.

That’s exactly how Chancellor James Oblinger described the visitor center during Thursday’s ceremony.

“The center will be the front door to the university and give thousands of students, visitors, researchers and faculty recruits a glimpse into what makes N.C. State one of the nation’s finest universities,” Oblinger said.

The Joyner Visitor Center is located off Western Boulevard, beside the McKimmon Center.

The two-story, 27,000-square-foot building will offer those who visit a high-tech welcome to campus, complete with touch-screen kiosks, multimedia presentations, information tables and offices for admissions and university personnel.

Joyner donated $1 million toward the $5 million project. Other donors included Progress Energy, Wachovia and North State Bank.