As a young man growing up in Black Mountain, Mike Begley learned indispensable lessons about life, both at home and in the community he loved. 

“Dad was always the one involved in municipal leadership, and he was a catalyst that could make things happen and get other people to join and support,” said the Owen High School alumnus who went on to matriculate at UNC Chapel Hill, before completing his education at the UNC School of Law. “Mother was always in the background, but she was always the one who said, ‘be sure you’re right, then forge ahead.’”

Those influences formed the foundation upon which he endeavored to build a professional and personal life centered around service and humility, ultimately earning the local attorney an induction into the N.C. Bar Association Legal Practice Hall of Fame last October. 

Begley, who began his legal career in 1977 before establishing Begley Law Firm on South Richardson Boulevard eight years later, was one of eight senior legal professionals enshrined in the hall of fame’s class of 2025. The Swannanoa Valley native and former Black Mountain mayor is the 35th attorney from Western N.C. and 17th from Buncombe County to receive the honor.

The son of former Black Mountain alderman Marcus Begley, who served on the town’s governing board for 16 years, was the first Owen graduate to be awarded what is now known as the Morehead-Cain Scholarship. He left his small Appalachian community to pursue higher education in the Research Triangle in 1970.

“At the end of those first four years I could have ended up just about anywhere,” Begley said. “But, by the time I completed law school, three years later, I really just wanted to come back to the mountains.”

He was one of many young people from his generation to return to the Swannanoa Valley with a goal of serving the community.

“The four years I was in high school, we had a great teen coffee club,” Begley said. “We had The Drifters, Percy Sledge and a bunch of really big names who came through Black Mountain to perform there. Apparently, we became a favorite place to stop for people who were going to be playing sometime during the weekend, in Charlotte or Atlanta, or somewhere like that.”

The Red Coach, which operated near the intersection of Montreat Road and State Street, had nearly 700 members, he added, each paying $5 per year, with a team of dedicated youth organizing the club.

“Back then, several of the people in our age group were generally oriented toward leadership activity, so we had various ways in which young people were involved in the community,” he said. “I never really thought of that as being that unusual.”

Begley began practicing law in Asheville before establishing his Black Mountain firm in December of 1985. He had no immediate plans to become involved in hometown politics, but his father’s health prompted an unanticipated turn.

“His group of supporters pressed him to run again, but our family didn’t want him to,” he said. “Those supporters of my dad decided they would back me if I would run instead. I had only been back in the community for a few months by the time of the election, and I ended up being the top vote-getter.”

At the age of 32, Begley, serving as vice mayor at the time, received a phone call while on vacation, marking an unexpected new chapter in his political career.

“The town manager called and said, ‘I just wanted to let you know you’re the mayor,’” he recalled. “The mayor at the time stepped down, so I asked when that would be effective. He said, ‘you’re the mayor.”

It was a position he held for 13 years, more than half of his two-decade career in local government. During Begley’s tenure, Black Mountain was awarded N.C. Governor’s Community of Excellence, constructed a new fire and police station, established a recreation and parks program, created the East Buncombe County Fire District and the town’s historic district.

A more subtle aspect of his time in the mayor’s office has been viewed by every elected official since his first term.

“On all of our plaques that sat in front of us, the public would see our names and title, but what we were looking at on the backside of them said, ‘servant leader,’” Begley said. “I always wanted our board to know, regardless of what others think about us, that was what we were aspiring to be.”