The night the Senate confirmed Brent McKnight as a U.S. District Court judge, Senator Dole had this to say:

"He has had a lifelong thirst for knowledge, having been a Rhodes Scholar and — perhaps even more impressive to those of us in North Carolina — a Morehead Scholar."

McKnight has enjoyed an extraordinary legal career. He credits much of his success to The Morehead.

"The Morehead has opened doors, without any doubt," McKnight said. "My career has been helped at every juncture by my association with The Morehead." McKnight attended UNC before the Morehead Summer Enrichment Program was established, but he used his undergraduate years to reflect on his life's purpose. This led him to choose law. An internship with Senator Sam Ervin on the Senate Watergate Committee and a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford further shaped his career and life.

As a judge, McKnight oversaw portions of the nation's first Hezbollah prosecution. Other cases included murder and drug trials and even a fraud case involving an NBA owner. For McKnight’s commitment to fairness, Governor Jim Hunt inducted him into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest honor.

McKnight is one of only 19 UNC graduates to be both a Morehead Scholar and Rhodes Scholar. After Senator Dole described his accomplishments to her colleagues, his nomination to the federal bench sailed through the Senate.

After a lifetime of accomplishments, McKnight recently learned of what might become his greatest challenge — that he has esophageal cancer. He has vowed to fight it. As his physicians begin their course of treatment, McKnight continues to work as a federal judge.

The Morehead, he says, "challenged me to understand my career as a calling, to serve others and make a lasting and positive contribution, to the extent I'm able, to this state and its people."

Brent McKnight died on Saturday, November 27, 2004. This obituary appeared in the Charlotte Observer on Sunday, November 28.

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