Bill Eagles Will Speak in the Courage Series and Give the Quaker Lecture
Bill Eagles will speak in the Courage Series and give the Quaker Lecture during an upcoming two-day visit to Wilmington College.
The prominent North Carolina Quaker attorney and mediator is scheduled to speak in the WC campus minister’s Courage Series Nov. 9, at 7 p.m., in the T. Canby Jones Meetinghouse. He will discuss what it takes to be willing to be incarcerated as a result of one’s religious beliefs. Eagles was a Vietnam-era conscientious objector.
The next evening, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m., he will present the Quaker Lecture on the theme “Listen, Love and Let It Go: Bringing Mediation Principles to Community.” This event is also in the meetinghouse, which is adjacent to the Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center in WC’s Boyd Cultural Arts Center.
Eagles grew up on a farm in North Carolina and studied agriculture in college. He was state president of Future Farmers of America. He also holds a master’s degree in higher education and a jurist doctorate, which led to a law career of more than 35 years that includes arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Eagles now limits his practice to the art of mediation. Also, since 1989, he has taught law, leadership and ethics courses at Elon University School of Law, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and High Point University.
An active Quaker, Eagles serves on boards representing Quaker higher education and a retirement home. He is on the executive board of Friends United Meeting and has served North Carolina Yearly Meeting for two decades in numerous leadership capacities. Also, he is an active member of New Garden Friends in Greensboro, where his activities include 17 years of teaching adult Bible classes.
Eagles and his wife, Catherine, a federal district judge, have two adult sons, each of whom moved north to practice law.
