John Dodd joined The Jesse Helms Center in 1994, becoming its first president. He served for 26 years and retired in the summer of 2020.
Early in his tenure Dodd helped raise a $5 million capital campaign which eventually led to the construction of The Helms Center’s current headquarters, museum and archives in Wingate, N.C. In 2001, Senator and Mrs. Helms along with former British Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher dedicated the building.
Dodd developed The Helms Center’s nationally-acclaimed Free Enterprise Leadership Challenge, an experiential learning program on entrepreneurship and freedom for high school students. The FELC program currently has over 11,000 graduates around the world.
Dodd also worked with government and education leaders in Mexico to introduce The John Templeton Foundation’s Laws of Life character education program. Prior to his arrival at The Helms Center, Dodd was president of a political consulting firm. He co-authored the book, And The World Came His Way: Jesse Helms’ Contributions to Freedom.
A successful lacrosse coach, Dodd has taken three teams, college and high school, to national and state championships. Dodd and his wife, Teresa, have two adult daughters, Katie and Mary. The couple lives in Southport, N.C.
How Jesse Helms Made the Reagan Revolution Possible
Thirty-five years ago, on March 23, 1976, voters in North Carolina helped shape the course of history. Their decision to support the presidential hopes of former California Gov. Ronald Reagan in the Republican presidential primary kept Reagan in the race for the 1976 GOP nomination and opened the way for his 1980 election as the 40th president of the United States.