Neighborhoods, politics, sports teams, shopping, parks, schools, bars and restaurants all make a city. But, in the final analysis, what gives any city distinction are its people: the big shots and the little guys.
The eve of the 21st century is an obvious time to step back and ask a question: Which individuals during the past 100 years have been most influential in shaping how Richmond looks, operates, thinks and behaves?
Who were the movers and shapers - the leaders, visionaries, entrepreneurs and benefactors without whom the city would be a different place?
Few personify these movers and shapers better than Theresa Pollak, a Richmond artist and independent spirit who lives in Henrico County. Born in 1899, she is just a few months short of having witnessed the entire century. Seventy-one years ago, educator Henry Hibbs asked her to teach an art class for 20 pupils. That class grew and became the school of the arts at Virginia Commonwealth University - today, one of the nation's leading art schools.
Some people, such as Thomas Fortune Ryan and Carter Glass, were neither born here nor ever lived here. Both hailed from western Virginia and built their reputations elsewhere - Ryan on Wall Street and Glass in the U.S. Senate. But each helped to establish Richmond institutions that are integral to the city fabric. Ryan built the glorious Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in the Fan and U.S. Senator Carter Glass was a founder of the Federal Reserve Band: He made sure that Richmond landed one of the 12 highly prestigious district headquarters.
Other efforts were more modest, but no less enduring: Virginia Randolph, a daughter of slaves who founded a public school for African-Americans on Mountain Road where she taught for 57 years. Or Thomas Cannon, a benevolent postal worker, who regularly gives much of the salary away to charity.
In some of the 100 entries, more than one person is listed because others contributed to building upon a single activity or idea. For instance, Richard S. Reynolds was a tobacco tycoon turned Wall Street investor turned industrialist. In 1938, at the height of the Depression, he moved Reynolds Metals here and grew it into one of the world's major aluminum producers. In the 1950s, his son, Richard S. Reynolds Jr., built the handsome corporate campus on West Broad Street that heralded Richmond's suburban expansion.
The movers and shapers are listed in chronologically by year of birth. The first entries included some Richmonders who grew wealthy in post-Reconstruction Richmond and shared their largesse by endowing cultural and social institutions. A parallel theme emerges: individuals of more modest means responding to pressing social issues - women's, workers' and civil rights.
Throughout the century, individual talents appear who either worked here (writers Ellen Glasgow and Patricia Cornwell) or moved on but never forgot their native city (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Tom Wolfe).
Also, civil rights and race relations are critical themes: Curtis Holt's challenge to annexation, Henry Marsh's and L. Douglas Wilder's symbolic political victories as Richmond's first African-American mayor and Virginia's first African-American governor, respectively.
As the century ends, individuals continue to respond to pressing social needs - Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz delivering care to AIDS patients in much the same spirit that earlier in the century Grace Arents provided for healthcare for urban children. Or journalist Ray Boone ensuring that other voices can be heard through his Richmond Free Press in much the way John Mitchell added an independent voice through the Richmond Planet.
What themes emerge from our 100 entries? To dispel a misconception, you obviously don't have to be a native Richmonder to make an impact here. Nearly 60 percent of those listed were born elsewhere. And for all the talk that Richmonders are still fighting the Civil War, 27 percent of those listed are not native Southerners.
Of course, any list is subjective. Some of the entries could easily represent the efforts of hundreds of others. But this roster may jog readers to think of other individuals who made indelible marks on the civic life or spirit of 20th-century Richmond - and help us all remember that one person can make a big difference.
We are delighted to present...
"Movers and Shapers: The 100 Most Influential Richmonders of the Century."
James H. Dooley
and Sallie May Dooley
Joseph Bryan
John Stewart Bryan
and David Tennant Bryan
Grace Arents
Thomas Fortune Ryan
Rosa Dixon Bowser
Eppa Hunton Jr.
John Barton Payne
and John Garland Pollard
Virginia Randolph Ellet
The Rev. Walter William Moore
Carter Glass
Webster S. Rhoads
Linton O. Miller
William B. Thalhimer
Jacquelin P. Taylor
William T. Reed Jr.
Ross R. Millhiser
John Mitchell Jr.
Bishop James Cannon Jr.
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
Lila Meade Valentine
William C. Noland
Henry Baskerville
and H. Coleman Baskerville
Douglas Southall Freeman
Charles M. Robinson
Maggie Lena Walker
Frederick W. Boatwright
Lucy Randolph Mason
Irene Langhorne Gibson
and Lady Nancy Langhorne Astor
Ellen Glasgow
Frederick William Sievers
Virginia Randolph
Dr. Edward N. Calisch
Dr. J. Fulmer Bright
May Keller
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
James Branch Cabell
William Harry Schwarzschild
Richard S. Reynolds
and Richard S. Reynolds Jr.
Adele Clark
John Powell
William Lawrence Bottomley
Dr. William Sanger
Charles F. Gillette
Frederick Otto Seibel
Henry H. Hibbs
Anthony Dementi
Calvin Lucy
Thomas C. Boushall
Wilbur Havens,
and John Shand
Mary Wingfield Scott
Dr. Theodore F. Adams
and Dr. Peter James Flamming
Floyd Dewey Gottwald
Theresa PollakElisabeth Scott Bocock,
Louise Fontaine Cadot Catterall
and Mary Ross Scott Reed
Virginius Dabney
Cabell Luck
and Beattie C. Luck
Oliver Hill Sr.
Paul Mellon
Lewis Powell
Eddie Weaver
Samuel S. Wurtzel
Leslie Cheek Jr.
Julien Binford III
David Silvette
E. Claiborne Robins Sr.
Edward Eugene Willey
Howard Hearns Carwile
Mary Higdon "Sunshine Sue" Workman
Ray Dandridge
Angus Powell
Joseph Ukrop
Jacquelin Ukrop
James Ukrop
and Robert Ukrop
Edmund A. Rennolds Jr.
Mary Anne Rennolds
and Emma Gray Trigg
Paul Sawyer
Mary Tyler McClenahan
Alden Aaroe
Sydney Lewis
and Frances Aaronson Lewis
Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr.
Robert Watkins
and Stoner Winslett
The Rev. Curtis Holt Sr.
Newton H. Ancarrow
and Ralph White
James C. Wheat Jr.
A. Linwood Holton
Dika Newlin
Nina Friedman Abady
The Lambert Family
Neilson November
Thomas Cannon
David S. Kilgore
Nancy Tanley Kilgore
and Muriel Joyce McAuley
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan
David N. Martin
L. Douglas Wilder
John Shelby Spong
and Jack D. Spiro
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Bliley Jr.
Henry Marsh
Miller & Rhoads Santa Claus
Raymond H. Boone
Eugene P. Trani
Arthur Ashe
Jeff MacNelly
Bruce Miller
and Phil Whiteway
Sidney J. Gunst Jr.
Dr. Lisa G. Kaplowitz
Patricia Daniels Cornwell
GWAR
Talk Back: Did we miss
The eve of the 21st century is an obvious time to step back and ask a question: Which individuals during the past 100 years have been most influential in shaping how Richmond looks, operates, thinks and behaves?
Who were the movers and shapers - the leaders, visionaries, entrepreneurs and benefactors without whom the city would be a different place?
Few personify these movers and shapers better than Theresa Pollak, a Richmond artist and independent spirit who lives in Henrico County. Born in 1899, she is just a few months short of having witnessed the entire century. Seventy-one years ago, educator Henry Hibbs asked her to teach an art class for 20 pupils. That class grew and became the school of the arts at Virginia Commonwealth University - today, one of the nation's leading art schools.
Some people, such as Thomas Fortune Ryan and Carter Glass, were neither born here nor ever lived here. Both hailed from western Virginia and built their reputations elsewhere - Ryan on Wall Street and Glass in the U.S. Senate. But each helped to establish Richmond institutions that are integral to the city fabric. Ryan built the glorious Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in the Fan and U.S. Senator Carter Glass was a founder of the Federal Reserve Band: He made sure that Richmond landed one of the 12 highly prestigious district headquarters.
Other efforts were more modest, but no less enduring: Virginia Randolph, a daughter of slaves who founded a public school for African-Americans on Mountain Road where she taught for 57 years. Or Thomas Cannon, a benevolent postal worker, who regularly gives much of the salary away to charity.
In some of the 100 entries, more than one person is listed because others contributed to building upon a single activity or idea. For instance, Richard S. Reynolds was a tobacco tycoon turned Wall Street investor turned industrialist. In 1938, at the height of the Depression, he moved Reynolds Metals here and grew it into one of the world's major aluminum producers. In the 1950s, his son, Richard S. Reynolds Jr., built the handsome corporate campus on West Broad Street that heralded Richmond's suburban expansion.
The movers and shapers are listed in chronologically by year of birth. The first entries included some Richmonders who grew wealthy in post-Reconstruction Richmond and shared their largesse by endowing cultural and social institutions. A parallel theme emerges: individuals of more modest means responding to pressing social issues - women's, workers' and civil rights.
Throughout the century, individual talents appear who either worked here (writers Ellen Glasgow and Patricia Cornwell) or moved on but never forgot their native city (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Tom Wolfe).
Also, civil rights and race relations are critical themes: Curtis Holt's challenge to annexation, Henry Marsh's and L. Douglas Wilder's symbolic political victories as Richmond's first African-American mayor and Virginia's first African-American governor, respectively.
As the century ends, individuals continue to respond to pressing social needs - Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz delivering care to AIDS patients in much the same spirit that earlier in the century Grace Arents provided for healthcare for urban children. Or journalist Ray Boone ensuring that other voices can be heard through his Richmond Free Press in much the way John Mitchell added an independent voice through the Richmond Planet.
What themes emerge from our 100 entries? To dispel a misconception, you obviously don't have to be a native Richmonder to make an impact here. Nearly 60 percent of those listed were born elsewhere. And for all the talk that Richmonders are still fighting the Civil War, 27 percent of those listed are not native Southerners.
Of course, any list is subjective. Some of the entries could easily represent the efforts of hundreds of others. But this roster may jog readers to think of other individuals who made indelible marks on the civic life or spirit of 20th-century Richmond - and help us all remember that one person can make a big difference.
We are delighted to present...
"Movers and Shapers: The 100 Most Influential Richmonders of the Century."
James H. Dooley
and Sallie May Dooley
Joseph Bryan
John Stewart Bryan
and David Tennant Bryan
Grace Arents
Thomas Fortune Ryan
Rosa Dixon Bowser
Eppa Hunton Jr.
John Barton Payne
and John Garland Pollard
Virginia Randolph Ellet
The Rev. Walter William Moore
Carter Glass
Webster S. Rhoads
Linton O. Miller
William B. Thalhimer
Jacquelin P. Taylor
William T. Reed Jr.
Ross R. Millhiser
John Mitchell Jr.
Bishop James Cannon Jr.
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
Lila Meade Valentine
William C. Noland
Henry Baskerville
and H. Coleman Baskerville
Douglas Southall Freeman
Charles M. Robinson
Maggie Lena Walker
Frederick W. Boatwright
Lucy Randolph Mason
Irene Langhorne Gibson
and Lady Nancy Langhorne Astor
Ellen Glasgow
Frederick William Sievers
Virginia Randolph
Dr. Edward N. Calisch
Dr. J. Fulmer Bright
May Keller
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
James Branch Cabell
William Harry Schwarzschild
Richard S. Reynolds
and Richard S. Reynolds Jr.
Adele Clark
John Powell
William Lawrence Bottomley
Dr. William Sanger
Charles F. Gillette
Frederick Otto Seibel
Henry H. Hibbs
Anthony Dementi
Calvin Lucy
Thomas C. Boushall
Wilbur Havens,
and John Shand
Mary Wingfield Scott
Dr. Theodore F. Adams
and Dr. Peter James Flamming
Floyd Dewey Gottwald
Theresa PollakElisabeth Scott Bocock,
Louise Fontaine Cadot Catterall
and Mary Ross Scott Reed
Virginius Dabney
Cabell Luck
and Beattie C. Luck
Oliver Hill Sr.
Paul Mellon
Lewis Powell
Eddie Weaver
Samuel S. Wurtzel
Leslie Cheek Jr.
Julien Binford III
David Silvette
E. Claiborne Robins Sr.
Edward Eugene Willey
Howard Hearns Carwile
Mary Higdon "Sunshine Sue" Workman
Ray Dandridge
Angus Powell
Joseph Ukrop
Jacquelin Ukrop
James Ukrop
and Robert Ukrop
Edmund A. Rennolds Jr.
Mary Anne Rennolds
and Emma Gray Trigg
Paul Sawyer
Mary Tyler McClenahan
Alden Aaroe
Sydney Lewis
and Frances Aaronson Lewis
Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr.
Robert Watkins
and Stoner Winslett
The Rev. Curtis Holt Sr.
Newton H. Ancarrow
and Ralph White
James C. Wheat Jr.
A. Linwood Holton
Dika Newlin
Nina Friedman Abady
The Lambert Family
Neilson November
Thomas Cannon
David S. Kilgore
Nancy Tanley Kilgore
and Muriel Joyce McAuley
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan
David N. Martin
L. Douglas Wilder
John Shelby Spong
and Jack D. Spiro
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Bliley Jr.
Henry Marsh
Miller & Rhoads Santa Claus
Raymond H. Boone
Eugene P. Trani
Arthur Ashe
Jeff MacNelly
Bruce Miller
and Phil Whiteway
Sidney J. Gunst Jr.
Dr. Lisa G. Kaplowitz
Patricia Daniels Cornwell
GWAR
Talk Back: Did we miss
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