HILLSBOROUGH - Janice Lorene Mills, former dean of North Carolina Central University's law school, died Monday, August 20, 2007, surrounded by family and friends at UNC Memorial Hospital.

 

The daughter of Laurene Wise Mills and the late Charles S. Mills, Janice was reared by her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Kay Wise, in Reidsville, North Carolina. She was a graduate of Reidsville Senior High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in political science. At Carolina, she earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa and was a Johnston Scholar, Brooks Scholar and a member of the Valkyries Women's Honor Society. She received her Juris Doctorate from Duke University where she served as a legal assistant for the Duke University Equal Opportunity Aid Society and received a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship.

 

She was a member of the American Bar Association, the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Bar Association. Her board memberships included the center for civil rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law, the center on law and the ethics center on child and family health, a consortium of Duke University, North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She served as a lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, West Africa. She coordinated visits of Ghanaian judges and the Ghana School of Law dean to North Carolina Central University Law School.

 

She authored 'North Carolina Landlord and Tenant Breach and Remedies: With Forms' (Harrison Company 1991; 1997 Supplement). Her book was listed in the December 2001 edition of 'A Selected Bibliography of North Carolina Practice Materials for Lawyers and Other Legal Professionals.'

 

Janice was appointed as the eleventh dean of North Carolina Central School of Law in August 1998. After accepting the deanship, one of Janice's first projects was to plan the 60th anniversary celebration of the law school, which was chronicled in the publication, So Far and accompanying postcards. During her tenure, Janice was successful in advancing the law school in the areas of fundraising and the percentage of students passing the bar examination. Her tenure ended with the comprehensive renovation and expansion of the Albert L. Turner Law Building. At the completion of the project in the summer of 2005, students, faculty and staff returned to a tremendously enhanced learning and teaching environment replete with additional classrooms and computer labs, new technology and a new HVAC system.

 

Janice was an avid gardener and bird watcher enthusiast. She traveled abroad extensively.

 

Janice is survived by her mother, Laurene Wise Mills of Greensboro; her devoted friend of 30 years, Roberta Ann Dunbar; and siblings, Joylette Mills-Ransome of Plainfield, N.J. , Charles S. Mills Jr. (Bonnie Kim) of Somerset, N.J., Janie Charlene Penn, Vernon, Bentley, and Timothy Mills of Greensboro, Fred H. Mills (Corliss) of Durham and Kelvin R. Mills of Fayetteville.

 

A memorial service was held on Saturday, August 25, at 10 a.m. at B. N. Duke Auditorium on the North Carolina Central University campus.

 

Online condolences may be sent to www.scarborough-hargett.com.