The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, created in 1965, is an honor that can be granted in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The Longleaf Pine is the official state tree of North Carolina. As of 2009, it was believed the Order had been awarded to over 15,000 individuals.
The Order of the Long Leaf Pine is among the most prestigious awards presented by the Governor of North Carolina. The Order of the Long Leaf Pine is presented to individuals who have a proven record of extraordinary service to the state. Contributions to their communities, extra effort in their careers, and many years of service to their organizations are some of the guidelines by which recipients are selected for this award. The honor is most often presented when a person retires.
A state employee can be awarded The Order if the employee has contributed more than 30 years of dedicated and enthusiastic service to the state of North Carolina.
The Order is similar to honors bestowed in other states, such as the Kentucky colonel and South Carolina's Order of the Palmetto. Originally, the Order was a symbolic honor for visiting dignitaries, but later it became an honor for notable North Carolinians. Although sometimes called the state's highest civilian honor, that distinction legally belongs to the North Carolina Award.
Read more about Order Of The Long Leaf Pine: Notable Recipients, Certificate
Famous quotes containing the words order, long, leaf and/or pine:
“The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something tricklike about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand.”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)
“Here were poor streets where faded gentility essayed with scanty space and shipwrecked means to make its last feeble stand, but tax-gatherer and creditor came there as elsewhere, and the poverty that yet faintly struggled was hardly less squalid and manifest than that which had long ago submitted and given up the game.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaf and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin’ in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin’ in the poplar trees.”
—Billie Holiday [Eleanor Fagan] (1915–1959)
“Before I finally went into winter quarters in November, I used to resort to the north- east side of Walden, which the sun, reflected from the pitch pine woods and the stony shore, made the fireside of the pond; it is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire. I thus warmed myself by the still glowing embers which the summer, like a departed hunter, had left.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)