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A Life of Opportunity Begins with a Love of Reading
Eric Law ’76, who has built a life and career dedicated to education and community service, combines them to impact our community.
At Country Day, Eric formed friendships, played sports, earned a National Merit Scholarship, and graduated near the top of his class. With a passion for modern languages developed by teachers at Country Day, he taught Spanish at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Wake Forest and Duke universities.
After earning tenure, one would think this would be the end of the story. But Eric wanted to do more. “Charlotte has become a magnet for people to come for economic opportunity,” he says. “We’ve become challenged to provide enough resources for everybody, and part of what keeps me going in my work is to see to it that everybody gets the resources they need, especially children, to do well in school and to give them a chance to have successful lives. Because I love my own town, I want people to enjoy being here as much as I have, and for the quality of life for all of us to be better.”
After working at several nonprofit organizations tied to education and youth development, Eric is currently the executive director of Promising Pages. This nonprofit collects new and donated books and shares them with children in underserved communities. Eric calls the job a perfect fit.
“Coming from a family of educators and having my first summer job as a teenager working at the JCSU bookstore, I've been around books all my life,” he says. “My brother and I were able to take for granted that books were there, and we had an opportunity to read early. In retrospect, not all my peers had that same advantage. Making books available to those who are underserved is a mission that really speaks to me.”
Having expanded recently, Promising Pages distributes 200,000 books annually. Eric says the group needs to distribute as many as 400,000 books a year to meet the need, a goal he plans to achieve by 2025.
Continuing to Connect with Country Day
In 1970, Eric became one of the first Black students to attend Country Day, and in 1976 became the first Black graduate. In February, Eric spoke with Middle and Upper School students via Zoom about his experience at Country Day. He also discussed his career in education and nonprofits and why it’s important to address literacy in solving socioeconomic mobility. The conversations overflowed to hallways as students and teachers sought out Eric for continued dialogue about equity, upward mobility, and service. Eric reminded students, “To be thankful that you have the privilege of a Country Day education. This was a great gift my parents gave to me. Not all kids have that blessing.”
Eric has served on the school’s Board of Trustees in the past, and last fall, he signed on as co-chair of Country Day’s BIPOC (Black Indigenous and People of Color) Alumni Committee, whose mission is to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion on the Country Day campus. Visit charlottecountryday.org/EricLaw to see a recent article on Eric published in QCity Metro.
