They built this city (part 2): Slipek remembers Richmonders who passed in 2024

Rome obviously wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Richmond. It takes imaginative individuals and leaders – and effective followers – to gradually build a dynamic community. And results can take generations. But this past year many leading lights were extinguished. Whether in the field of business and finance, medicine, the arts, sports and entertainment, politics and government, or education, the bright spirits below contributed to the public good. They will be missed, as will others that you remember.

In this second of two parts, we salute individuals who died from July through December. It should no doubt spark you to consider your own list of those lost in 2024. (Read part one here)

Mary Virginia Kelley Bliley

It’s quaint to consider that as we approach the middle of the 21st century, that there was a time when a woman’s status often depended on the man to whom she was married. Cleveland-born Mary Virginia Kelley Bliley, who died on July 3 at age 92, was part of such a generation. For 66 years she was the wife of Thomas Bliley (who passed away in November 2023). He was a prominent businessperson and a longtime force in metro Richmond and national politics. A third-generation president of Bliley’s Funeral Home, he served for seven years as Richmond mayor and in 1981 entered the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 20 years. During those almost three decades in political service, Mary Virginia Bliley was either at his side – or out and about on her own – gracing countless events. She was positive, interested, informed, friendly and down-to-earth. And what a magnificent laugh!

Read Flournoy McGehee Jr.

We lost a prominent figure in medicine on July 3, when Dr. Read Flournoy McGehee Jr. passed away at age 87. He grew up in Colonial Heights and earned his doctorate in medicine from the Medical College of Virginia. As an epidemiology intelligence officer at the National Communicable Disease Center of the U.S. Public Health Service, he participated in eradicating smallpox in West Africa, Togo and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). He conducted anthrax vaccine studies in Kenya and malaria eradication projects in Haiti. McGehee returned to teach at MCV, where he was an associate professor of internal medicine and pathology. He later co-founded Pulmonary Associates of Richmond, and in the early 1990s founded the Sleep Disorders Center of Virginia, where he practiced until 2008.

Kay Scott Gardner

After college, North Carolinian Kay Scott Gardner followed the well-worn path known as “reading, ‘riting and the road-to-Richmond.” Thus began a stellar career in hotel management. Gardner died on July 25 at 88. She dazzled central Virginia when she helped to open, and then manage, the Commonwealth Park Suites hotel on Bank and Ninth streets in the late 1970s and ’80s. With the venerable John Marshall Hotel on the wane and the Jefferson shuttered, downtown was ready for something special. The Commonwealth Park had begun life as Reugers, later became the Raleigh, and under Gardner’s savvy eye, was elegantly transformed into the region’s first all-suites hostelry. It earned an AAA Five Diamond Award among other accolades. While its vice president and general manager, Gardner became the first woman president of the Metro Richmond Hotel and Motel Association and the first woman on the Virginia Board of Tourism.

Roxane Gilmore

Suffolk-born Roxane Gilmore, the wife of Gov. Jim Gilmore, who served in office from 1998 to 2002, died on Aug. 7 at age 70. When any history of Virginia’s first ladies is written, she will stand out as the first gubernatorial spouse to hold a full-time job during her husband’s term and for having researched, planned and executed a highly regarded, $7.2 million restoration and refurbishing of the Executive Mansion in Capitol Square. It was readied for the fast-approaching 400th anniversary in 2007 of the first English settlement at Jamestown. She had taught in Henrico and Chesterfield county public schools when he served as a Commonwealth’s Attorney before attaining statewide office, while as first lady she taught classes in Latin, Roman history, Greek history, and epic poetry at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

Lucious Edwards Jr.

Lucious Edwards Jr., a historian who served Virginia State University for 36 years as archivist and an adjunct professor, died on Aug. 24 at age 80. Not only was he born in Ettrick, where VSU is located, but he spent his grade school years at Matoaca Elementary School, which was on the college campus, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university. “Any time he was on our campus, it was as if part of VSU history was walking among us,” said the school’s president, Makola M. Abdullah, in a news release. Edwards’ life and career as a historian coincided neatly with a time when there has been an unprecedented focus on Virginia’s and our nation’s African American and Black histories.

Morton G. Thalhimer Jr.

Morton G. Thalhimer Jr., a scion of one of Richmond’s best-known families for business, cultural and philanthropic involvement, died on Sept. 6 at age 100. A graduate of St. Christopher’s School and Dartmouth, he was a member of the greatest generation; Thalhimer served in the U.S. Navy during World War II from 1943-1946. Back in Richmond, he was a significant figure in local cinemas from 1952-1986 as the president of Neighborhood Theatre Inc., a major Richmond-area chain. His philanthropic spirit was spread broadly to such beneficiaries as the Jewish Community Center, United Way, National Conference of Christians and Jews, American Red Cross, Sheltering Arms Hospital, Richmond Memorial Hospital and Foundation, Collegiate School and the Virginia Holocaust Museum.

William “Bill” Kitchen

William “Bill” Kitchen, a dapper Connecticut Yankee at University of Richmond (who stayed in town after graduation), made an indelible impression on the entertainment scene here in the 1980s. He died at age 65 on Sept. 9. The charismatic entrepreneur opened Rockitz, a popular bar and music venue, in a shabby corner building at West Broad and Laurel streets. Here he presented leading rock groups of the era, including Mudd Helmut, A Flock of Seagulls, and Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs. He also presented Laurie Anderson at the Mosque (now Altria Theater) in June 1986 when the performance artist was on a steep ascendancy. Always the impresario, Kitchen went on to produce Bill Clinton’s inaugural balls and develop a career at Sony Music International. At the time of his death, he was the much-admired town manager of Machias, Maine.

Bill Bowman

Richmonders of a certain age still get a goofy tingle of nostalgic fright whenever the name “Bowman Body” is uttered. An entertainer and presenter of horror films here during the 1970s, Bill Bowman died on Sept. 29 at age 89. “Shock Theater” was his locally produced television show that aired Saturday afternoons and late nights on WRIC TV 8. The opening scene always featured a ghoulishly made-up Bowman emerging from a coffin to introduce the program. “Hi there, horror movie fans…” was his opening line. I always kept a respectful distance, but those who knew Bowman agree that he had a kind and friendly spirit. What can we say: Thanks and good-bye horror movie curator?

Mark Alden Sternheimer

A native Richmonder and prominent retailer in the second half of the 20th century, Mark Alden Sternheimer died on Oct. 1 at age 94. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps immediately after completing his studies and was deployed to Korea where he attained rank of Captain. Back in Richmond, Sternheimer joined the family business, A&N Stores, which was started in 1868 as a dry goods store and later sold surplus military clothing. As the company’s owner and president, he expanded the business to a 60-store chain in Virginia. He was also director of Charles Schwarzschild Jewelers. An avid pilot, Sternheimer was a founder of the Richmond Aviation Museum and helped to acquire the SR-71 aircraft now suspended in the Science Museum of Virginia. He was also an original benefactor of the VCU School of Engineering.

Marie Goodman Hunter

Marie Goodman Hunter, a force of nature in life, on Richmond area stages and in classrooms, took her final curtain call on Oct. 21 at age 95. She was of the generation of many African Americans and Blacks who were distinguished by being a “first.” Equipped with a soaring speaking voice and mezzo-soprano, she was the first Black to appear in such highly regarded local theater companies as Barksdale and the Virginia Museum Theater (which closed its doors in 2002). Also, as one of the most prolific actresses of her generation in Richmond, she should be considered a first lady of Richmond stage. Hunter taught music and speech at John Marshall High School for 30 years and was a co-founder of the American Revels theater company. This aspirational but short-lived professional company (1978-1980) sought to specifically engage Black and white audiences alike.

Tony Guzzo

To friends, “he is VCU baseball in my mind” or “was one of a kind.” Coach Tony Guzzo died on Oct. 10 at age 75. The Norfolk native and East Carolina alumnus began coaching VCU baseball in 1983 at the team’s home field, Parker Field, and after it was replaced, at The Diamond until 1994. He was a revered coach who took the team to its first NCAA regional appearance and first NCAA postseason victories. During his tenure, VCU also produced its first of 16 Major League Baseball draft picks. “His influence runs through every fiber of our program, and his legacy will live on here at VCU,” according to a VCU Athletics statement. After leaving VCU Guzzo coached at Old Dominion University and laid the foundation for Justin Verlander, a Goochland High School standout, to be drafted.

Paul Taylor “Watty” Watson

With roots in Kentucky, veteran Richmond musician Paul Taylor “Watty” Watson passed away on Nov. 24 at age 72. From the 1970s until recently, he was an indelible part of Richmond’s music scene. He could play the cornet, guitar, banjo and mandolin and sing. The groups with which he played included the Orthotonics, the Griefbirds, Ululating Mummies, House of Freaks and Patrick Phelan FSK. Between gigs you might have found him working part-time at a local restaurant or bar, Millie’s, Patina Grill, Kitchen Table or independent bookstores Chop Suey or Fountain Books. He wrote the last word for his obituary: “In my life I’ve been able to do everything I’ve ever wanted. That’s as good as it gets, isn’t it?”

Robert Perry “Bob” Black

Kentucky-born Robert Perry “Bob” Black, the fifth president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, died on Dec. 5 at age 96. After receiving his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from the University of Virginia, and serving in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1947, Black spent his entire banking career at the Fed. As president from 1973 to 1992, he consistently took strong stances against inflation. As a Richmond civic leader he initiated the Financial District’s gradual move from East Main Street toward the riverfront with construction of the bank’s gleaming and iconic high rise designed by Minoru Yamasaki (architect of the World Trade Center twin towers). When construction of the Downtown Expressway cut the new headquarters off from the downtown landscape, Black insisted on bridging the gap with a park, Kanawha Plaza.

Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni, who died on Dec. 9 at age 81, was an esteemed poet, author, educator and public speaker. For six decades she was gracious, cool, and brilliantly imaginative in much that she did, but was at the height of her influence during the Black Power movement. Later, as an English professor at Virginia Tech, she became as intertwined with the fabric of the campus as the granite “Hokie” stone that forms its buildings. On April 17, 2007, the day after the massacre of 32 students and faculty, she delivered a rousing speech at a university memorial gathering that resonated internationally and bolstered grieving mourners: “We are Virginia Tech,” she famously declared. “I flexed internally when I heard those words,” Brandon Spencer, an engineering major at Tech in the class of 2008, told me as he punched his fist to his chest at a recent holiday party, “She was a star light for all of us.”