Claude Baker graduated in 1966 from Lenoir High School, where he was a member of the renowned LHS band. After receiving a B.M., magna cum Iaude, in music composition from East Carolina University in 1970, he attended the Eastman School of Music, earning his doctorate there in 1975. Currently, he is Class of 1956 Chancellor's Professor of Composition in the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to his appointment at Indiana in 1988, he served on the faculties of the University of Georgia and the University of Louisville, and was a Visiting Professor at the Eastman School. In the eight-year period from 1991-99, he held the position of Composer-in-Residence of the St. Louis Symphony, one of the longest such residencies with any major orchestra in the country. During this time, he initiated numerous community-based projects, the most notable of which was the establishment of composition programs at multiple grade levels in the St. Louis Public Schools. In recognition of his contributions to the cultural life of the city, he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1999. 

Mr. Baker is known primarily as a composer of symphonic music. Among the many orchestras in addition to St. Louis that have commissioned and/or performed his works are those of San Francisco, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, North Carolina and Nashville, as well as the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de RTV Espanola, the Orquesta Nacional de Espana, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and the Staatskapelle Halle. The professional honors he has received as a composer include awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, and the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain. For the 2008-09 academic year, he was named the Paul Fromm Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome.
 
Mr. Baker is the son of the late William Claude Baker, Sr. and Henrietta Laxton Baker, both lifelong residents of Caldwell County. 

Betsy McRee graduated from Oak Hill High School in 1952, attended Mars Hill College and graduated with a two year degree in Liberal Arts. She then studied at Wake Forest University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English and Religious Education and minoring in French.

She worked at The Employment Security Commission of North Carolina for thirty-one years, where she served as the Office Manager for 25 years. She retired in 1999.

During her career, she was privileged to serve on a number of Community Boards and Commissions, including the following: Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce (served as President for two years); Caldwell County Economic Development Commission (served as Chairman and Vice- Chairman); Education Foundation Board of Directors; Communities in Schools (Vice Chairman for 20 years); Child Advocacy Council; Caldwell County Council for Women; Altrusa International of Caldwell County (Charter member; active member for 40 years, serving as President and many other offices and Committees, including 15 years as Chair of the Communications Committee); Caldwell County Library Board of Directors; Foothills Performing Arts (Board member and Treasurer); Crimestoppers Board of Directors; Caldwell House Board of Directors; and Blue Ridge Electric Community Leader's Council. 

McRee was the recipient of honors and recognitions, including The L. A. Dysart Citizenship Award, 1964; Public Relations Award by International Association of Personnel in Employment Security 1986; Rotary Vocational Excellence Award, 1994; Sam Walton Business Leader Award, 1999; and the Altrusan of the Year, 1984, 2004, 2007. 

She is a member of United Presbyterian Church, where she is an Elder, a choir member, is active in women's work and has served on various committees. She has been a volunteer for the last five years with Altrusa International's "Operation READ" project, working with third graders at Oak Hill Elementary School to encourage them to love books and become good readers. She also volunteers with Caldwell House, helping to edit their newsletter. 

She has two Children, Terri Chester of Black Mountain, North Carolina and Wesley Chester of San Diego, California. Her husband, John McRee is deceased. 

Secretary Freeman, son of the late Joe and Helen Freeman, attended East Harper Elementary, Hudson Elementary and Hudson Junior High: graduating from Hudson Senior High School in 1969. He subsequently earned his BS from N.C. State University, an MPA from Appalachian State University, and his Municipal Administration Certification from the University of North carolina at Chapel Hill. 

His professional career spanned more than forty years and was dedicated to public service as a city manager, regional council director, and a member of Governor Bev Perdue's cabinet from 2009-2013 as her Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Secretary Freeman oversaw his agency's involvement in the "EPA/TVA Settlement" that achieved major air quality improvements for North Carolina by reducing wind-transported pollution from TVA power plants into Western N.C. (inducting Caldwell County). He guided the adoption of the "Jordan Lake Rules" and the "Falls Lake Rules" to make these lakes safe as a primary drinking water source for millions and a natural resource free of pollution. Secretary Freeman also worked on establishing "Grandfather Mountain State Park" as part of North Carolina's State Park System, and he served on the Governance Coordinating Committee of President Obama's National Ocean Council.
 
Throughout his local and regional government career, he planned and constructed several water and sewer systems, including the Town of Hudson's inaugural sanitary sewer system. He was the city manager of Hudson, Maiden, Brevard and Shelby before serving as the Executive Director of the Triangle J Council of Governments in North Carolina's Research Triangle. Secretary Freeman has served on numerous local, state and national boards, and was president of many of these organizations. His charitable works include leading United Way campaigns and service as the 2012 Chairman of the N.C. State Employees Combined campaign. He is a deacon and elder of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Rotary Past President, and a "Paul Harris Fellow." 

Secretary Freeman and his wife, Emily, reside in Raleigh and have three children and two grandchildren. In 2012 Secretary Freeman was awarded the "Order of the Long Leaf Pine." 

Earl Tate was born in Rowan County, North Carolina. He was one of nine children born to Emma Diza Lassiter and William Wallace Tate. The Tate family moved to Lenoir when Earl was five, and he was educated at the old Lenoir Graded School. Later, he was admitted into the University of North Carolina Pharmacy School where he excelled, graduating in 1925.

In 1930 he opened Tate's Drug Store . Unfortunately, the depression brought an untimely closing to the business, but he formed the enduring Lenoir Drug Company, Inc., in 1934. Mr. Tate immersed himself in the community and in 1937, he won the first of his 12 successful mayoral campaigns, resulting in what was then the longest continuous service as Mayor in Lenoir's history. He served for 24 years, leading Lenoir during the depression, the war years, and the growth years of the 1950's when Lenoir became an industrial powerhouse.

In 1962 the Caldwell County Democratic Executive Committee chose Earl Tate to fill an unexpired term in the N.C. House of Representatives. Mr. Tate would be elected three times to the legislature, serving for a total of almost seven years. He also served locally again in 1976, when Mr. Tate was elected to the Caldwell County Commission, serving as chairman.

Mr. Tate served as the Potentate of The Oasis Tumpe of Western North Carolina. Only the second man from Caldwell County to hold this office, he was a charter member and first president of the Foothills Club, organized in 1937. He had been a Mason since joining the Blue Lodge in 1927. He was a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Kiwanis Club, the Moose Lodge, a trustee of Caldwell Memorial Hospital and a Steward of the First Methodist Church. Mr. Tate served as a director and president of the North Carolina League of Municipalities. In 1948 he was honored by the American Druggist Magazine with its award for outstanding community service, one of only four druggists from North Carolina to have won that award.

Earl Tote married Kathryn Aileen Haynes, a native of Kentucky, who taught at Davenport College. They had three children, two daughters; Virginia Haynes and Patricia Stephane, and one son; William Wallace II. Mr. Tate died October 2, 1990 and was buried beside his beloved wife Kathryn.