07/04/2026
The John Penn and the Granville Museum and Harris Exhibit Hall celebrated our very own Mark Pace the recipient of the the “DAR Medal of Honor” Sunday June 28th Coverage of The Henderson Dispatch Newspaper:
“Mark Pace honored at America 250 celebration”
By Tyler Davis [email protected] 252-436-2839 Jun 29, 2026
OXFORD — The Granville County Historical Museum hosted a celebration of America 250 Sunday afternoon, as well as a celebration of local historian and North Carolina Room Specialist Mark Pace.
The North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution presented Pace the Medal of Honor in April, the highest award given to non-DAR members. A national award, it had to be approved by the president of the nationwide DAR. The John Penn chapter put in their nomination after months of work, beginning in June 2025.
“The key to earning the Medal of Honor... is leadership, encouragement and support of everyone’s personal journey of their American experience without a trace of judgement or bias,” said Barbara Harrison, regent of the John Penn DAR. So too are trustworthiness, patriotism and a penchant for charity.
Pace, museum President Luann Thompson joked, is a most “scurrying” kind of guy, always busy, seen crossing streets and entering and exiting buildings.
“The things that he’s doing,” she said, “is touching people’s lives.”
Pace, for his part, said he was “flattered beyond measure,” before he delivered his remarks.
“I’m a firm believer that life flows like a river,” said Pace, “we get caught up in eddies sometimes... I firmly believe that God points us in a direction, and we make a choice whether or not to go in that direction.”
Life’s course can turn on a dime, too. In 1986, while living with his Henderson-based family and working in Raleigh, he stopped by North Carolina State University to visit his brother.
“I said, ‘can I sleep on your couch tonight,’ ” he recalled. “Then I stayed in Raleigh for the next 25 years.”
Then, in 2008, while working as a freelance artist and designer, he stopped by Richard Thornton Library and was asked if he’d be interested in a job.
“You make decisions in your life, sometimes, like this,” he said. “I thought, ‘I can either turn around and go back home, it’s snowing pretty bad... or I can keep going. And I thought, ‘what the heck?’ ”
Pace began in 2008, “and the rest is history,” he joked.
The other purpose of Sunday’s event was to unveil the museum’s new exhibit celebrating 250 years of local history. It is composed largely of artifacts the museum has collected over the years, Director Brittnee Worthy explained, such as a World War I-era poster celebrating the Allies, a slip encouraging citizens to keep their gas masks at the ready and sundries from Camp Butner, which trained soldiers during World War II.
The installation was named after Surry County native Major General Henry Wolfe Butner. The Town of Butner was incorporated in 2007.
The America 250 exhibit will remain open through July.
