RICHMOND – Higher education lost a great friend July 11 with the death of William Johnston “Billy” Armfield IV, after a brief illness.

Armfield, 81, was a 1956 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1962.

In 1970, he co-founded Macfield, Inc., a textile company in Madison, NC, and served as an executive with Macfield and later Unifi, Inc., after Macfield merged with Unifi in 1991.  In 1995, Armfield founded Spotswood Capital LLC, a private investment company in Greensboro, and served as its president until his death.

While active in business, Armfield was also active in education.  He served in numerous leadership capacities at the UNC Chapel Hill, including chair of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 1996.

Billy Armfield was a friend to higher education and a friend to the Higher Education Works Foundation.