Fayetteville Police Chief Roberto Bryan Jr. has been appointed by Gov. Josh Stein to serve on the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission, which is an advisory board to the governor and the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety on crime and justice issues throughout the state.
“It is an incredible honor to represent the citizens of Fayetteville and the law enforcement profession on the Governor’s Crime Commission,” Bryan said in a news release. “I am humbled by Governor Stein’s appointment and look forward to collaborating with leaders across North Carolina. Together, we will work diligently to enhance public safety, support victim services and strengthen community-police relationships across our great state.” Bryan, the city’s 26th police chief, started on July 7, 2025. He previously was associate vice chancellor and police chief at Fayetteville State University. He spent 22 years as a special agent and section chief with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Currently, Bryan is the 2025–2026 president of the North Carolina Police Executives Association.
We’ve been hearing about the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine since it first was announced on February 27, 2023, and it begins in earnest Monday along Village Drive behind Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. “Everyone at Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health will be tremendously excited on July 20 when our first class of 64 students take their seats and begin their studies toward the MD degree,” Hershey Bell, 68, the school’s founding dean, said Tuesday. “For me personally, what I will be feeling is an immense sense of gratitude for what Mike Nagowski (retired chief executive officer, Cape Fear Valley Health], Stan Wearden [president, Methodist University], Dan Weatherly [current CEO, Cape Fear Valley Health] and Suzanne Blum Malley [provost and executive vice president, Methodist University] have created. They are the visionaries who laid the foundation for everlasting transformation of our city, county and region.”
Students, Bell said, will be studying general medical education to become physicians in internal medicine, emergency medicine, cardiology, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology, radiology, and psychiatry, among other healthcare specialty fields.
Shamar Wilson is an E.E. Smith High School junior with his eyes on a healthcare career. He participated in the 2026 Congress of Future Medical Leaders on June 24-26 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, according to a news release. It is an honors-only program for outstanding high school students aspiring to become physicians or pursue careers in medical research fields. Wilson was nominated because of his academic achievement, leadership, and commitment to serving others, the release said, by Nobel Prize-winning physician and scientist Mario Capecchi. Perhaps the Methodist Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine someday will be in his future.
“So many people in the middle class are barely hanging on, and for so many North Carolina families, there’s just too much month at the end of the money,” former N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said this week in his bid for the U.S. Senate against Republican Michael Whatley. The winner will replace the retiring Sen. Thom Tillis. The former governor said it right.
If you are in search of employment, you may want to mosey over to the Crown Expo Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today for the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s Career & Resource Expo. It’s for jobseekers, transitioning military families, Fort Bragg spouses, and community folks exploring new career opportunities.
“Bill, thank you so much for putting into words how so many of us felt about Ric Morgan,” Kennon Jackson Jr., president and chief executive officer for the Arts Council of Fayetteville | Cumberland County, wrote in an email about my Wednesday column on Ricardo Morgan, the longtime stage actor at Cape Fear Regional Theatre and the Gilbert Theater. “Your tribute reflected the light that shone so brightly from his soul.” Ricardo Morgan died at age 62 on July 7. A service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at First Baptist Church on Moore Street in downtown Fayetteville.
“Bill, thank you for the excellent tribute column about Ricardo Morgan,” Drew Ziegler wrote in an email. “Well done! He was such a good person off the stage as well as a wonderful actor for Cape Fear Regional Theatre. I will miss his presence on the stage.”
“Ricardo Morgan appeared in numerous shows at the Gilbert Theater and co-hosted the Pryer Awards twice,” Matt Lamb, artistic director at the downtown Gilbert Theater, wrote in an email about the stage actor. “Ricardo’s contributions to the ‘Theatre Arts’ here in Fayetteville are unmatched. He was kind, talented, funny and full of style. Ricardo appeared in Godspell, Antigone, The Secret Garden and Harvey. His presence will be missed here at the Gilbert.”
Well, I turned 77 this month and gave some thought to what Mama always said about aging. “Getting older isn’t for sissies,” she would say. What I’ve learned from my years is that 67 is better than 77; 57 is better than 67; 47 is better than 57; 37 is better than 47; 27 is better than 37; and I can’t remember much about 17 other than Fayetteville was a good place to grow up.
Community history aficionados will find The Voices of Resolve: The Patriots of Liberty Point an interesting read. The work, which is published by the Cumberland County Public Library, is a work preserving stories of those who played roles in the American Revolution in Cumberland County. “Cumberland had numerous Patriots endure deprivations and struggles while fighting for American independence,” Joseph Westendorf, the local and state history manager for the county library, said in a news release. Westendorf devoted two years of research to the publication. The library’s Local & State History Department has been selected by the Liberty Point Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution to receive the America250! commendation medal and certificate, which will be presented at the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners meeting on July 20.
Coming Sunday: Carolyn Strickland: “We’re going to have a church on the north side of town.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
