Orage Quarles III served as The News & Observer’s president and publisher for sixteen years and retired June 2016. During his tenure he ensured that education received coverage worthy of an important public institution and, on the editorial page, advocated for investing in public schools and early childhood education.

Orage was the founder and served one year as chair of High Five, a partnership of five businesses and five local school systems: Wake, Durham, Johnston, Orange and Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Each business (including The N&O) contributed $100,000 a year each for five years to improve dropout rates and prepare students for college.

Orage was named the 2002 Publisher of the Year by Editor & Publisher magazine. He chaired the Newspaper Association of America from 2001 to 2002. Orage has served on multiple local and national boards, including the N.C. Museum of History, the Dix Conservancy, the UNC School of Media and Journalism Foundation, and the Freedom Forum, which oversees the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Orage Quarles III was inducted into the Wake County Public School System Hall of Fame in 2016.