THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408130277
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 179 lines
A forest of sturdy pines gives way to the gravel driveway connecting Keith Fearing's house to Airport Road, to Manteo and to the community that may not have evolved without him.
Behind one tree, another awaits discovery, like the countless friends and careers Fearing has sought out and cultivated in his 71 years.
Next Saturday, Fearing will be honored as North Carolina's ``1994 Pharmacist of the Year'' at a reception in Manteo. While he may be known best as the area's first pharmacist, residents of this community - especially those who grew up with him during the first half of the century - say he was a jack of just about every trade there ever was in Dare County.
Among these are politician, insurer, Realtor, community activist, social director, one-man welcome wagon, store clerk, hotel manager, builder, car enthusiast and board member, chairman or president of at least 30 state and local organizations such as the health department, College of the Albemarle, banks, power companies, churches and historical associations.
``I've never had any trouble changing directions, from one thing to another,'' Fearing said in the sun room in the modern home overlooking Croatan Sound that he and his wife, Lib, bought new in 1989.
Family connections never hurt, he added.
His grandfather came to Manteo as a physician from Elizabeth City in the late 1800s. And Fearing's father and an uncle at one time owned just about every business in Manteo, including a restaurant, the island's first power company, the Fort Raleigh Hotel and a pharmacy, confectionery, hardware store, appliance store, clothing shop and general store.
Fearing liked the idea of being a doctor, but thought medical school took too long to complete. ``I knew I was going to go into business or I was going to go into pharmacy,'' he said. He did both.
As a teenager, ``Keith got his start selling Coca-Colas at the Lost Colony - he'd buy them for a nickel and sell them for a dime,'' said long-time friend Tom Hartman, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
In 1944, Fearing graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy in Chapel Hill. He served two years in the Navy before returning to Manteo.
He became the county's first pharmacist in 1947, adding another business to the family corporation, Fearing Inc. At the time, he was the only pharmacist between Morehead City and Elizabeth City, so there were plenty of customers.
The Outer Banks had only one physician when Fearing began as a pharmacist, which meant people sought him out during emergencies when the doctor was out.
Recalls his brother Woody: ``I remember a lady who came into the pharmacy. It was a Sunday, and the doctor wasn't working. She'd cut off her finger in the car door. She'd saved the finger.''
Keith Fearing ``brought out a cup of ice and made her stick her thumb and the other end of her thumb in it and sent her off to the hospital. They saved her thumb.''
Fearing set about bringing another doctor to Dare. There was a growing need for medical facilities, he said, one which ``the county didn't recognize.''
Wallace Harvey and his wife were vacationing on the Outer Banks in the mid-1950s, and told customers in a gift shop that he was a doctor.
``I don't know how word got around,'' Harvey said. ``The next thing I knew, I was in Atlanta and I got a call from Keith. I'd never met him before.'' He said Fearing asked him to start a practice on Roanoke Island.
On a subsequent trip, Harvey agreed to meet with Fearing. ``They had the old Fearing Cafe at that time, and we had supper over there. His father was out of town, and Keith stalled around until his father showed up.
``His father said, `If you'll come down here and practice, I'll build you any kind of building you want,' '' Harvey recalled.
``One thing led to another and, next thing I know, I was up here and they'd already started the building. I committed to come.''
Harvey worked at Memorial Clinic from 1956 to 1973, when he left Roanoke Island. He returned in 1991, and now lives next door to the Fearings.
The building where Harvey rented space as a doctor was next to Fearing's pharmacy. The doctor's patients would have their prescriptions filled there - a convenience some people criticized as being too much like a deal to keep other doctors and pharmacists out.
But Fearing doesn't see it that way. ``It hadn't been a matter of anybody keeping anybody out. It's been a matter of keeping people in.''
Fearing's pharmacy was successful. But the area was not as populated as it is now. And he had time to help his father sell other goods.
Lib Fearing said she remembers her husband's work days as hectic. ``Keith would work in the confectionery and then there'd be a call for a prescription, so he'd run back across the street and fill it,'' she said.
He became a familiar and important face around town, the only pharmacist and the son of a prominent businessman. Friends and associates say his careers were successful and varied because of his friendliness to strangers, and the ability to see everybody he met as a potential friend, ally and connection.
He'd met Lib before, but decided he was in love one day in 1948 when she came into the store to buy wrapping paper to send cookies overseas to her boyfriend.
``I thought, `Oh hell, it's now or never,' '' he said. Six weeks later they were married.
Other decisions did not come as quickly.
Keith Fearing said he'd never thought about a political career when a local man called him one night in 1960 and told him some Democrats wanted him to run against the incumbent for the N.C. General Assembly.
He postponed his decision ``until 15 minutes before the deadline for filing - and I filed,'' he said. After he was elected, he helped land several area post offices and fishing areas on bridges.
He served only one term as a state representative, but that began a long history of political activity working or raising funds for Congressman Richard Gephardt, then-U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford and State Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight.
Fearing's sister Mollie was once mayor of Manteo.
Now she owns Mollie A. Fearing and Associates Insurance, a Manteo company that competes with Outer Banks Insurance, once run by Keith Fearing but now looked after by his 39-year-old son, Malcolm III.
Despite the time he has devoted to work and public service, Fearing said his life's high and low points have been personal, rather than professional.
The Fearings' 41-year-old daughter, Dean, has multiple sclerosis and lives at the Britthaven Home in Nags Head, where she receives care. ``I love my dad,'' she said Friday. ``And he married a good woman, my mom.''
Lib is active in the community as well, an integral force behind the success of Lebame Houston's ``Elizabeth R.,'' which will be touring the country this fall. She looks out for her husband, sitting beside him as he was interviewed Thursday, nudging him when she thought he was talking too candidly.
Of his surviving siblings, Fearing remains close with his brother Woody, who also lives on Roanoke Island.
Keith Fearing left the family pharmacy in 1980. He became co-owner of Island Pharmacy in Manteo from 1981 to 1985. In 1985, he decided to retire because he had been chosen as president of the N.C. Pharmaceutical Association, and would not be able to do his share at the pharmacy. ``That's when I decided to retire.''
Soon after, the Fearings had a 10-day house guest, John P. Brooke-Little, from the College of Arms in London. Brooke-Little was in Manteo to devise a coat of arms for the town.
Fearing said their friendship led to his launching of a project that eventually won him the award he will accept next week.
Brooke-Little told Fearing that he did not know of any professional association in the U.S. that had its own coat of arms, and Fearing decided the state pharmaceutical association should be the first. He got the governor's blessing (in England the queen grants approval), and the association's coat of arms was devised. Copies were sold to members in return for donations to a pharmaceutical endowment fund.
``That's kind of the pinnacle of a pharmaceutical career - to be chosen pharmacist of the year in any state,'' he said.
Fearing talks about how times have changed on the island. He remembers when his father was running Roanoke Utilities, the first power company on the island.
About quitting time, his dad would shut off the power - on the whole island, that is - and then bring it up again. That was the signal to Keith Fearing's mother, Grizelle, that it was time to put dinner on the table.
But Fearing is willing to keep up with the changing times.
As an example, Lib cites how he spent his 71st birthday: learning to snorkel off the Cayman Islands.
Fearing's friends say as pharmacist and in other occupations, Fearing has been a lasting figure because he goes beyond the professional call of duty.
``I have known Keith all my life,'' said Dare County Sheriff Bert Austin. ``He was instrumental in getting a local bank for Hatteras.'' Austin managed the East Carolina Bank branches in Hatteras and Ocracoke for eight years.
``If you needed anything from the pharmacy day or night, he would open it up and get it for you,'' Austin said. ``He has helped direct the growth and progress of Dare County. I just couldn't say enough.''
According to Tom Hartman, Fearing is ``just one of the finest citizens in America'' When Hartman moved to the area in 1981 to supervise the Hatteras Seashore, ``the prior superintendents said, `Go meet Keith Fearing.' ''
Fearing invited him to Thanksgiving dinner that year.
``He made Dare County feel like home. Keith was a confidant and an adviser. He led me through the ropes. He knows almost everybody and, if he doesn't know them, he'll go meet 'em.
``Through his whole career, that is the way he is. He's interested in people and he cares about people. Keith never changes. He's always there, and he's steady. He's consistent.''
Asked Friday to sum up his feelings about his brother, who's 4 years older, Woody Fearing thought for a moment, cleared his throat and said: ``I think we're about as close as two brothers can be, we are now and we were all our lives.
``He's done so many great things, and I'm extremely proud of him.'' ILLUSTRATION: DREW WILSON/Staff
Keith Fearing fills a fountain at the modern home overlooking
Croatan Sound that he and his wife, Lib, bought new in 1989.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB