Association mourns death of Carson Bain, past president

Carson Bain, a former Guilford County commissioner who served as NCACC president from 1959-60, died Aug. 25 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 92.

The Association's 43rd president also became the first North Carolinian to be elected as an officer with the National Association of Counties. He served as NACo third vice president in 1961 and ascended to second vice president in 1962. That year he lost his bid for re-election to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, and he never advanced to NACo's top office.

In 1963 he was honored as "North Carolina's Outstanding County Commissioner" by the NCACC Executive Committee.

It was during Bain's term as first vice president (an office since reclassified as president elect) that the Association hired its first full-time staff member, Alex McMahon, as executive director in 1959. McMahon had served as part-time secretary-treasurer for the Association as assistant director of the Institute of Government.