Jim Fain, a Longtime North Carolina Commerce Secretary, Has Died at Age 80

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Former state Commerce Secretary Jim Fain, who in the 2000s helped North Carolina bring in companies from the pharmaceutical, financial services and aviation sectors, has died at age 80.

Fain the state's primary economic recruiter during Democratic Gov. Mike Easley's eight years in office died Wednesday at a hospice center in Raleigh, his son, John Fain, said Friday. He had been in declining health over the past year, the family said.

A longtime First Union executive who later served as the bank's Triangle-area president, Fain first joined the state Commerce Department in 1999 as an assistant secretary in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration. He was elevated to Easley's Cabinet in 2001 during one economic downturn and left as the 2008 Great Recession was ramping up and Easley's second term ended.