It was a bittersweet moment at the end of the presidential campaign last week when Barack Obama, speaking in North Carolina, tearfully acknowledged his debt to his Kansas-born and raised grandmother.

Obama got me thinking about Kansas.

So did a telephone conversation with Bernie Harberts, a North Carolina-based world traveler. He called in from Kansas where he and his mule-drawn wagon are traveling across the plains at the rate of about three miles a day.

The recent electioneering also reminded us of the Kansas connection of North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

On this "North Carolina-Kansas" connections streak, I remembered the legal work I did for the company that opened The Land of Oz, a theme park that brought a piece of the flat Kansas plains to the side of Beech Mountain in North Carolina.

I remembered last spring when the University of Kansas ended the NCAA basketball championship hopes of my favorite teams, Davidson and UNC.

The basketball connection between the two states is much deeper than that recent history. In fact, if most North Carolinians were asked about their state's connections to Kansas, they would talk about UNC basketball coaches Dean Smith and Roy Williams.

Smith grew up in Kansas, played basketball, and first learned coaching at the state's university. When he came to North Carolina, he brought with him not only the skills and potential of a great coach and recruiter. He brought a social consciousness that moved him to quietly and effectively work for social change in his new home state. Those changes helped the UNC basketball program thrive. Also, he helped open the hearts of white North Carolinians to the idea that the entire state could perform better if its doors were open to talented people whatever their race.

Williams grew up in North Carolina and began his coaching career here. But he honed his coaching and recruiting skills in Kansas. He unapologetically retains his affection for the University of Kansas, which gave him such an important opportunity.

As interesting and important as all these connections are, there is a North Carolina-Kansas connection that makes even more difference in the daily lives of North Carolinians than any I have mentioned.

Sixty years ago, a young Kansan moved to North Carolina to teach public law and government at the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill. His specialty was personnel administration, but his colleagues called on him for many other important tasks. Shortly after his arrival, his study of the financial soundness of the state and local governments' pension systems prompted revisions that still guide retirement plans for government employees.

Within a few years, he was deeply involved in the Institute's programs to educate, train and serve the professional managers of North Carolina's counties and municipalities. The modest Donald Hayman became the godfather of thousands of North Carolina's public servants. As a result, North Carolina's citizens are the beneficiaries of a corps of high-level public servants who can trace their professional standards to his inspiration.

As a state government intern more than 40 years ago in a program led by Hayman, I got a big dose of his quiet enthusiasm for public service and his demand for unselfish professionalism. For that, I will always owe him.

Last week when UNC's School of Government (successor to the Institute) honored Hayman with the MPA Alumni Distinguished Public Service Award, all North Carolinians should have stood and shouted, "Thank you, Kansas!"

D.G. Martin will talk about this column on WCHL-1360 at 8:20 a.m. with Ron Stutts. His regular program, "Who's Talking," airs at 6 and 10 p.m.