PRELIMINARY
DESCRIPTION
Collection: Roger C. KISER Papers • PC. 1792. 1-26
1949-1967
Physical Description: Approximately 8 cu. ft. in 24 fibredex letter boxes
and 2 fibredex flat boxes, containing correspondence, bills, resolutions,
reports, miscellaneous publications, and newspaper clippings. The newspaper
clippings are mounted in 8 scrapbooks filed in the 2 flat boxes.
Acquisition: Gift of Dorothy Kiser Crutchfield, Fayetteville, N.C., and
Edwin M. Kiser, Coral Springs, Florida, 1991.
Description: Roger Clinton Kiser (1894-1971), representative from Scotland
County'in the North Carolina General Assembly from 1949 through 1967, was
the son of Edwin and Amy Florence (Butner) Kiser of King, Stokes County.
He was educated in the King High School (Stokes County, N.C.), Guilford
College, Appalachian State Teachers College, the University of North Carolina,
and Columbia University. Upon his discharge from the U.S. Army (as a first
lieutenant) at the end of World War I, Kiser followed a career in public
education both as teacher and principal from 1919 to 1959 in Guilford,
Montgomery,, and Scotland counties, and simultaneously successfully followed
the occupation of a farmer. With reference to the latter, Kiser planted
cotton and tobacco and raised beeves, but eventually diversified by establishinj
both a nursery business and an apiary at the farm after World War II.
In 1948 Kiser successfully stood for election to the state House of
Representatives (Democratic ticket) and was returned for a total of ten terms.
"Frequently, he was returned } opposition. During t^e period, he was in
every session a member of the House Committees on Higher Education and Educatioi
serving the latter as vice-chairman in
1959»
1963, and 1967, and as chairman
in 19.65. For seven of his ten terms, Kiser sat on the powerful Appropriations
Committee and for four sessions on the Finance Committee. With his strong
interest in education issues, commitment to improved salaries for teachers,
and dedication to a conservative fiscal policy, this combination of committee
appointments was a very attractive one to Kiser. Occasionally chaffed for
his outspoken opposition to legislative proposals that he felt challenged
or threatened traditional Jeffersonian-democratic positions, Kiser's conserva¬
tive-stance won him the popular soubriquet of "Watchdog of the Assembly".
Kiser's opposition to. the fiscal policies of Governor Hodges eventually
led to a break with the governor. In 1957 he was one of the architects of
the "Legislative Program for Progress" designed to counter Governor Hodges'
proposal for greater local and less state support for public education, and
to increase teachers' salaries by nearly 20% rather than the approximately
10% recommended by the administration. By the next session, 1959, Kiser was
a pivotal force in the election of a House Speaker (Addison Hewlett) who was
expected to favor a strong legislative program independent of executive
influence. Similarly, Kiser, though a strong supporter of Governor Sanford
(formerly one of Kiser's students) eventually disagreed with him in 1961 over
the question of a sales t^c on food in support of "A Brighter Day for Our
Children", rather than an increase in taxes on such items as tobacco, liquor,
and soft drinks. The disagreement did not constitute a breach, and both
joined forces in the 1963 extraordinary sessibn of the Assembly and in the
succeeding campaign to secure the constitutional amendment called "The Little
Fed" plan. This plan ensured periodic legislative reapportionment based on
the census of the population and embodied the "One Man One Vote" principle.