Cooper honors Dalton with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine

By: Mike Gavin
Published: February 02, 2021

SPINDALE (Feb. 2, 2021) — Gov. Roy Cooper awarded Walter Dalton the state’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, today.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cooper made the presentation via a video at the Isothermal Community College Board of Trustees meeting.

Dalton, the former lieutenant governor, retired Friday as Isothermal’s president. He served in that capacity since May 2013.

In the video, Cooper noted Dalton’s “remarkable career” and longtime service to the state and the community college system.

“I know our state is better because you answered the call to service,” Cooper said to Dalton in the video.

The traditional poem that accompanies the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award states:

Here’s to the land

of the long leaf pine,

The summer land

where the sun doth shine,

Where the weak grow strong

and the strong grow great,

Here’s to “down home,”

the Old North State!

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