Godfrey Retires from the Wilson College of Textiles With Legacy of Change, Vision for Future

As Wilson College of Textiles Professor and Former Dean A. Blanton Godfrey packed up his office ahead of his retirement last month, he came across all sorts of artifacts evoking thoughts of far less prosperous times in the school’s history — tokens that, today, help him reflect on a historic turnaround for the college, now 125 years old.

“Enrollment had been dropping like a rock. People were worried about the college not surviving,” Godfrey recalls, holding up printed-out powerpoint slides that long occupied a spot in his filing cabinet. Graphs on the papers depict plummeting enrollment around the turn of the century, underscoring the gravity of the position he’d taken on.

“In 2000, all of the news was about mills being closed, and jobs going overseas,” Godfrey says. “Everything you read in the newspaper made you say, ‘Why would I want to major in textiles?’”

The turnaround was swift.

Today, the Wilson College of Textiles is the nation’s premier hub for textiles education, research and innovation, with the facilities, faculty talent and industry connections to make the school a leading authority in textiles and everything that depends on textile technology, from wearable electronics to sustainable fashion and protective gear for first responders.

Graduates of the Wilson College are sought by top employers, from Nike to NASA.

That stature is thanks, in no small part, to the work that happened during Godfrey’s 14-year tenure as dean — progress he’s been able to witness up close in the most recent decade as a faculty member.

“It’s been actually quite a ride,” he says.

A dramatic transformation

Shortly after arriving at NC State in July 2000, Godfrey kicked off what would prove to be a transformation of the Wilson College by meeting with every faculty member, staff member and student he could, soliciting ideas on what changes might help propel the school into the 21st century.

A vision took shape.

“We created the tagline called ‘New World of Textiles,’” Godfrey recalls. “We stopped talking so much about spinning, weaving and knitting, and started talking about the applications — where textiles went.”

The changes included a top-to-bottom revamp of the college’s curriculum, with an enhanced focus on high-tech and high-interest applications, from automotive and medical textiles to forensics and the intersection of textiles and protecting workers on the front lines of dangerous professions.

“We tried to create a view that we didn’t sit around knitting socks,” Godfrey quips.

Godfrey invested resources into the then-fledgling Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC), and oversaw the growth of the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (now known as The Nonwovens Institute). Today, both are internationally-acclaimed hubs at the crossroads of academia and industry, where researchers conduct high-stakes work in collaboration with government and commercial partners — from the U.S. Department of Defense to the biggest names in textiles and apparel.

“Things just kept happening,” Godfrey says. Not the least of which? Enrollment, which grew 50% in just a few years, with the two Ph.D. programs growing by more than double.

The progress is not lost on Godfrey’s successor.

“He set the stage for many of the successes that the college is enjoying today,” says Wilson College Dean David Hinks, noting the vast alumni engagement and industry collaboration today that sees Wilson College graduates occupying high-profile, decision-making positions throughout the textiles industry, and in many cases, giving back to the college.

“That’s due in part to the great work that happened 20 years ago under Dean Godfrey,” Hinks says. “It’s a foundation from which we were able to grow.”

A distinguished career

Ironically, helming a college of textiles was hardly in the cards for Godfrey, who came to NC State with little experience in the industry.

After fourteen years in Bell Labs, he became Chair and CEO of quality management consulting firm Juran Institute, Inc. There he accumulated vast experience working with large companies all over the world, helping corporations rethink their competitive strategies.

It’s perhaps that proclivity for outside-the-box thinking that made the Florida State University and Virginia Tech alumnus the ideal candidate for the role of dean at a time when the college was in need of fresh ideas.

An entrepreneurial background has likewise served Godfrey well in the decade since shifting to a full-time faculty role, serving the last decade as Joseph D. Moore Distinguished University Professor of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, he’s a renowned mentor, particularly in the realm of entrepreneurship.

His entrepreneurship course, Hinks notes, is among the most sought-after classes each year, often featuring prominent guest speakers from the NC State and Wilson College alumni community.

“He is one of the most admired educators — faculty members — and his classes are really highly sought after, semester after semester,” Hinks says. “He brings to life concepts that can be quite complex to understand through real-world experiences he’s had, and the knowledge that he’s gained over decades of his professional life.”

A busy retirement planned

Yet, even as Godfrey celebrates his retirement, don’t count on him keeping still.

He continues to serve a variety of organizations, lending his expertise in information technology and quality management to change-focused organizations all over the world.

Godfrey served on the board of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the nonprofit he helped found, for many years and continues to serve on one of its critical board committees. The Institute now has 200 full-time employees and an annual budget of well over $60 million.

“He set the stage for many of the successes that the college is enjoying today.”
– Dean David Hinks

He’s also chair of the healthcare committee of the International Academy of Quality, and has worked with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health as an advisor for a dynamic interactive data visualization project in collaboration with UNICEF and the World Health Organization. There, he collaborates with a team working with grant funding from a private foundation and the Gates Foundation to improve global health outcomes – particularly in the realm of maternal and child health.

“I’ll still be very involved,” he says, laughing.

Plus, for someone whose work took him all over the world, expect him to return to some destinations with a more leisure-oriented approach in mind: his frequent flier account boasts some 2.5 million miles.

“And I plan to use them,” Godfrey says. “There are still countries I’ve never been to. And there are countries I want to go back to.”