"Nello L. Teer is a one-fisted, God-fearing man. He can be as gentle as a new father or as unswerving as a guided missile. It's not an act ... He simply has respect for the dignity of an individual and the conviction that excuses are not acceptable substitutes for performance"
This is how America's Builders described Nello Leguy Teer, Sr. in 1954. Nello's employees, many of whom worked for him for 30, 40, even 50 years, would have said the same.
As we journey through Nello's life, we witness unimaginable hardship and unbelievable success. We revisit events in history that we may have learned in school, yet now we see the very real impact they had on a Durham man, his family, and his employees.
The rapidly changing landscape of the times asks us to consider how we would have reacted amid the same circumstances. What can we learn from this story that applies to our world today?
Little by little, Nello makes enough profit to buy his own equipment. With a small labor force and a few mule teams, the 21-year-old forms the Nello L. Teer Company. He is still doing hard manual labor, but now he is his own boss.
The time is right to start a family. Nello marries Gertrude Adcock. She is the daughter of a carpenter who rents a house down the street. She is educated, having graduated from high school a few years earlier. Gertrude takes charge of the household while Nello focuses on the business. After losing their first child, they go on to raise a family of five children.
Background Image Courtesy Nello L. Teer Archives.
Racial tensions are high in the South, including in North Carolina. In July 1920, Edward Roach, one of Nello Teer's laborers, is accused of assaulting a white girl in Roxboro and is put in jail. Ed Roach is abducted from the jail and lynched by a mob of 200 white vigilantes in Person County
Nello knows that Ed Roach was innocent, because he was working for Nello when the assault reportedly took place.
Nello writes to the Durham Morning Herald denouncing the mob and the press for supporting the lynching. The mob subsequently threatens Nello if he comes to Person County.
News stories about Ed Roach's lynching and the statement of his innocence appear in papers across the nation and even in Canada.
Image Left Courtesy News & Observer, 1920.
Nello is committed to maintaining the best people and the best equipment. He owns one of the most well-regarded grading outfits in North Carolina. The Nello L. Teer Company is very busy with new road work.
The Earth Mover, a national road construction publication, runs a feature article about the company. After describing Nello's hardship as a child, it states: "Today that boy, only 32 years of age even now, has what is probably the largest grading outfit owned by any one individual in North Carolina."
Background Image Courtesy Nello L. Teer Archives
The first use of any Duke West Campus facility is on October 5, 1929, when the Blue Devils play the Pittsburgh Panthers in the new football stadium. Pitt beats Duke 52-7. Duke takes the defeat to heart and goes on to beat Pitt in subsequent matchups.
Image Left Courtesy David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
Unemployment is so high that white workers grow willing to do "Negro jobs" just to have a paycheck. Across the South, whites displace African Americans in many types of jobs.
Nello is one of the few Southern employers to retain his African American workforce. For Nello, the best employee is one that he himself has trained. These men have learned from Nello for years.
Regardless of race, men born February 1897 through December 1921 must register for the war. Nello Teer's sons Nello Jr. and Dillard, and Nello L. Teer Company foremen Dorsey Holman and Walter Clark are no exception.
Ultimately, these men are not drafted. Defense construction is considered a valuable contribution to the war effort.
1966 The company establishes a lightweight aggregate manufacturing subsidiary.
1968 The company opens an African office in Tanzania. The laborers, drawn mostly from the local population, work long shifts in the African bush country to complete the Great North Road.
1969 The Nello L. Teer Company creates a real estate development division and begins work in Research Triangle Park. Over the course of ten years, the company completes the Governors Inn Hotel, five banks, a post office, and several of the major RTP offices.
1972 A Heavy Industrial Division is established to oversee construction projects such as dams, rapid transit facilities, and hydroelectric plants.
1973 The company completes the construction of the North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield Building in Chapel Hill. It is an innovative feat of engineering.
1974 The company starts work on a section of the Washington D.C. Metrorail System.
1976 The Ramada Inn International Hotel is started in Doha, Qatar.
1979 In a multi-company effort, the Nello L. Teer Company contributes to the construction of the Negev Desert Israeli Air Bases, which are part of the 1978 Camp David Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt
Background Image Washington, DC, Metro Clarendon Station. Courtesy Nello L. Teer Archives.
This marks the end of a 70-year Durham icon, but a legacy remains. We drive on roads and work in buildings that Nello Sr., his family, and his employees built. They faced major challenges. But they persisted with a key conviction -- Don't Quit.
Don't Quit: The Nello Teer Story was on display at the Museum of Durham History from Fall 2017 until Spring 2018.
This digital exhibit was created by Kavya Menke in 2022.