Dr. James Merritt Collection

Collection

Identifier: SC-MS-188

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Dr. James F. Merritt, former Professor and Director Emeritus of the Center for Marine Science, dedicated 34 years at UNCW to conducting and facilitating research in the coastal environment. This collection includes materials related to the Marine Expo in Wilmington, N.C., an educational convention that brought together and focused on marine activities in the region. Dr. Merritt helped to organize the event and served as Chairman of the first Marine Expo. The material in this collection consists of committee minutes, correspondence, photographs and articles relating the Marine Expo held in Wilmington from 1985 to 1995, with emphasis on expos held during 1985-1987.

Dates

Creation: 1984-1995

Creator

Merritt, James F., 1944- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use.

Copyright Statement

Copyright retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

Dr. James F. Merritt was born in 1944 in Wake County, North Carolina. He attended East Carolina Univeristy for his Bachelor and Masters degrees in general biology, and earned a Ph.D. in genetics at North Carolina State University. In 1973, Merritt was hired at the University of North Carolina Wilmington to teach genetics for the Department of Biology and later became Chair of the department in 1978. During his time as Chair, he was instrumental in building the reputation of the marine sciences program and in establishing an environmental sciences program. He was also involved in the planning and development of the Marine Expo which was designed to spotlight marine activities in the region for the general public. In later years, Merritt led efforts to organize and then became Director of the Center for Marine Science Research, a position he served in until 1999. He stayed on as Assistant Director of the Center until his retirement from the University.

Extent

4 Containers (Contains 2 document boxes and 2 bankers boxes. )

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Related Materials

Materials related to the Marine Expo are also archived in several collections retained in Randall Library University Archives. Dr. James Merritt discusses the conception of the Marine Expo in an oral history interview given on November 9, 2006.

http://randall3.uncw.edu/ascod/index.php?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=86&q=+merritt+