Battle received dozens of awards, including The Order of the Long Leaf Pine award, which is considered the highest honor in the state of North Carolina and is presented by the governor.
A building and a scholarship fund also have been named in his honor. The George E. Battle Jr. School of Business, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology is named for him at Livingstone College. Battle was a former chairman of the college’s board of directors and an alumnus.
Additionally, Atrium Health Foundation, a charity connected to the Atrium Health system in Charlotte, created the Bishop George E. Battle Jr. Scholarship Fund, which is “dedicated to ensuring educational opportunities and careers in health care that are accessible for all.” Battle was an emeritus member of the foundation and the Atrium Health Board of Commissioners.
The Rev. George McKain Jr., a consultant and former public affairs director for the denomination, credited Battle’s connections with the health care system for saving his life.
“I was on life support,” McKain said, recalling a 2016 health crisis that began with an asthma attack. “They wanted to cut the machine off on the third day.”
Battle, citing his faith in McKain’s recovery, urged doctors not to take that step, and McKain said more than eight years later, “I’m wonderful, alive and well.”
“(Battle) just stepped in, as he’s done for so many other people, and just fought for you to be taken care of,” McKain said.
Honored with his likeness being placed in The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore in 2014, Battle marveled at the trajectory of his life.
“The only thing I wanted to do when I was young was to graduate from high school, but God had another plan for my life,” Battle said, The Salisbury Post reported at the time. “I once earned 30 cents an hour picking cotton, and now I lead the greatest church this side of heaven. That’s what God had in store for me.”
This article originally appeared here.
 in Charlotte, North Carolina, after an undisclosed illness. He was 77. ){kind=link}