William Brantley Aycock was a white educator and legal scholar. Born in Lucama, North Carolina, in 1915, he received his bachelor’s degree in education from North Carolina State University and his master’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After working as a public school teacher and serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Aycock returned to UNC-Chapel Hill to attend law school. Upon his graduation in 1948, he joined the law faculty. With the exception of his tenure as Chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill from 1957 to 1964, Aycock taught at the law school until his retirement in 1985.
Aycock was known at the UNC School of Law as a respected and well-liked professor and a talented legal scholar. Other notable activity during Aycock’s time at UNC-Chapel Hill includes his work with Frank P. Graham as a United Nations representative mediating the conflict between India and Pakistan in Kashmir; his hiring of basketball coach Dean Smith; and his opposition to the Speaker Ban Law. Aycock passed away in 2015 at the age of 99.