Education: Research: Alive and Well in N.C.

In the 1950s, North Carolina seemed to be exporting even more home-grown university talent than fine tobacco. Traditionally agrarian, the state had little to offer college graduates, who kept going north for better paying jobs. In 1959 a group of public-spirited North Carolinians came up with a solution: a "research park." Modeled after industrial parks—scientific companies were sought as tenants, rather than manufacturers—research centers flourished in the early '60s on the edges of the space race. But by 1965 many were faltering or had already failed, victims of an economic recession and a...