Leading from the start

In this conversation, former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot tells Erik Spanberg about his lifetime of leadership roles, from Eagle Scout to mayor, with an interval on Dean Smith’s UNC Chapel Hill basketball team. Vinroot, an attorney by trade, still goes to his office five days a week, lending counsel to younger peers and tackling nonfiction histories and biographies at the prodigious clip of one book per week. Vinroot, a moderate Republican who twice lost in bids to become governor, sees education as the most important issue for Charlotte — and the nation.