Eldridge C. Hanes
Eldridge C. Hanes—Redge to his friends—was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and graduated from Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Virginia, and then from Duke University in 1967 with a BA in Economics. He graduated from the Army Combat Engineering Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir in June of 1968 and served three years of active duty, the last of which was in the Republic of Vietnam and earned him the Bronze Star. After the army, Redge worked seven years for Hanes Corporation and then left to start Xpres Corporation, which eventually became The Russ Companies, for whom Redge served as chairman for three years before retiring in 2011. In addition to his business interests, he has served on a number of boards in the education, environmental and arts fields. Redge has published two novels, Billy Bowater and Justice by Another Name, in addition to contributing essays and articles to various publications. His essay “Helen of Marion” appeared in the recent UNC Press anthology, Mothers and Strangers: Essays on Motherhood from the New South. Redge has been married for fifty years to Jane Grenley Hanes. They have a son, Philip, and a daughter, Lara, and are grandparents of five lively and beautiful grandchildren. He lives in Winston-Salem, NC.
What period of history do you wish you knew more about.
The great awakening, called the Renaissance, is a period that has always intrigued me. What precipitated the awakening and who was the driving force? Mankind has always experienced cataclysmic transformations, an event or series of events that defy explanation. Fire, the wheel, agriculture, speech, smelting metals…what prompted these changes. Understanding the great awakening is something that I will study more.
Favorite non-reading activity.
It would be more accurate to say, favorite non-reading activities. There is no single thing that holds my attention over all others. With that in mind, I will start with…raising orchids. I became addicted to orchids about forty years ago and haven’t lost the addiction yet.
Fly fishing…salt water, fresh water, brackish water, you name it and if it has fish in it that will take a fly, I’m there.
Wing shooting…quail, pheasant, ducks, sharp-tailed grouse, partridge, etc.: I don’t care about shooting big game, but the thrill of wing shooting is unequaled. There are more, but we’ll leave it here.
Not all books are for all readers…when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
Not very long. I am fond of stories as opposed to psychological musings. I like stories about interesting people and unusual events with which they must deal. When I begin a book and it takes twenty pages of laborious descriptive prose before I get to a human being worth listening to, I’m half-way out. I like great prose if it is employed in telling a good story rather than being clever and self-conscious. A book about some wounded psychotic character is fine if early on he or she decides to kill someone with a plastic fast-food restaurant knife and then run off to Patagonia with the Governor of South Carolina. Anyway, I’d say fifty pages is enough to do a book in.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person.
Love is not the adjective I would choose to describe my fascination with the painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. It is simply one of the most remarkable concepts for a painting that I have ever seen. It comes from a period in history that I wish to know more about. As noted in question 1 above, I find the period of enlightenment that is called the renaissance to be miraculous in its new freedom of expression and learning. The garden has been interpreted hundreds of times and there is no consensus as to its true meaning. What is certain is the Bosch was an individual of extraordinary artistic talent coupled with an imagination that defies categorization. I have seen this monumental work [ 12 ½ feet by 6 ½ feet ] at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The intensity of color, complexity of composition, and sheer size holds one before it as if in a trance. Museum guards often must tell visitors to move along.
Is there another profession that you would like to try?
Archaeology or Paleontology. Digging in the earth to find signs of life from times gone by would be fascinating. I have been an amateur paleontologist for many years specializing in the geologic eras that are most abundant near my home, namely, Paleozoic era fossils. My son is a professional archaeologist and when he said that was what he wanted to do with his life, I had this strong sense of envy.
