A local historian has joined the World War II Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition Board of Directors, board chairman Wilbur Jones announced in a news release.
 
Chris Fonvielle retired from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in June as professor emeritus of the department of history, where he specialized in the Civil War, Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear and antebellum America, officials said in the release.

Fonvielle received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award this year for his service to North Carolina. He is a native to Wilmington with a lifelong interest in American Civil War, North Carolina and Cape Fear history, officials said.
 
“We are privileged to have a person of his distinction join the board,” Jones said in the release. “We will utilize his experience, talents, and knowledge in helping us preserve WWII history as he branches out into a new field.”
 
The coalition, formed in 2000, is an all-volunteer nonprofit preservation organization with a mission to identify, preserve and interpret the rich WWII legacy of Wilmington and Southeastern North Carolina.
 
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in anthropology at UNCW, Fonvielle was the last curator of the Blockade Runners of the Confederacy Museum. He subsequently received his master's degree in American history at East Carolina University and his doctorate from the University of South Carolina.
 
After teaching at East Carolina University, Fonvielle returned to his undergraduate alma mater at UNCW in 1996. He has published books and articles including "The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope"; "Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear: An Illustrated History"; and "To Forge a Thunderbolt: Fort Anderson and the Battle for Wilmington".
 
In 2014, then-Gov. Pat McCrory appointed him to the N.C. Historical Commission.