Hal A. Sieber

His memorial service will be held at 10:00am on Monday, June 13, at Hanes Lineberry North Elm Chapel. The family will receive friends following the service. Interment will follow at Carolina Biblical Gardens in Jamestown.

Mr. Sieber was born in Weehawken, NJ and raised in Brevard and Hendersonville, NC. He earned his BA in political science from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he also attended law school.

He had a varied and impassioned career. He was a speechwriter for Senator John F. Kennedy; senior researcher for the Library of Congress; and Public Relations Director for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. He taught at several North Carolina universities, including Guilford College and NC A&T SU. Most recently, he was the long-term editor of the Carolina Peacemaker.

Mr. Sieber was an active civil rights leader for six decades, most notably in Greensboro. He was active in the Martin Luther King Foundation. He authored and illustrated several books on the regional history of the civil rights movement. In 2002, he received the national Peace Prize of Saint Francis from the Secular Franciscan Order of the USA. Past winners have included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and two popes.

He was nominated for the National Book Award (Poetry) in 1956 for ”In This the Marian Year”; and published many other collections of prose, including ”Something the West Will Remember”. A chorale written by Sieber (to a symphony written by his grandfather) was performed on the steps of the Smithsonian Institution in 1968.

Sieber is survived by his daughter Paula M. Sieber of Greensboro; son Mark D. Sieber of Raleigh; brother and sister-in-law Peter and Shirley Sieber of Pittsboro; and three grand-daughters: Sara Kaplan of Washington, DC; Sophia Kaplan of Chapel Hill, NC; and Aubrey Kaplan.

Online condolences may be made to haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com