University of Virginia Library

McConnell, Barrett: University Conscious Visitors

By Richard Jones
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The following is one in a series of articles
which will be published concerning the Board
of Visitors. Those Visitors not mentioned
below will be included in later articles. — Ed.

The Board of Visitors is traditionally a
group of men and women who have
excelled in certain fields and who,
through their talents, are best able to lead
the University towards its purpose.

In June of 1964, the Board of Visitors
adopted a Statement of Institutional
Purpose for the University. It states, "A
university is a community of scholars
having as its central purpose the
enrichment of the human mind by
stimulating and sustaining a spirit of free
inquiry directed to an understanding of
the nature of the universe and man's role
in it."

The members of the present Board of
Visitors follow an impressive lineage of
outstanding men. Originally the Board of
Visitors of the Central College was comprised
of six men, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
James Monroe, David Watson, Joseph C. Cabell,
and John H. Cocke. The first meeting was held
on April 8, 1817, over a year after the founding
of the University.

Officially Established

Later, on March 29, 1819, the Board of
Visitors for the University of Virginia was
officially established. The members of this
Board included Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, Joseph Cabell, John H. Cocke,
Chapman Johnson, James Breckenridge, and
Robert Taylor. Thomas Jefferson was elected
Rector, a position similar to Chairmanship, at
this meeting.

The number of members of the Board and
the lengths of their terms have varied since its
founding. In 1817, six visitors were to be
appointed with a term of three years. Only two
years later, the General Assembly of Virginia
passed a law requiring thirteen visitors whose
terms lasted for seven years. In 1882 the
requirement was changed to a nine-member
Board and a term of four years.

C. Waller Barrett

Member of the Board of Visitors

Presently there are sixteen members of the
Board of Visitors and each may serve a
maximum of three four-year terms. Thirteen of
the members must be from the State of Virginia
and eleven must have attended the University.

The Governor of the Commonwealth may
appoint new members to the Board after the
term of each member has expired.
Traditionally, the Governor announces the
appointments after March 1, the day after
terms expire for members of the Board of
Visitors.

Sixteen Members

The sixteen members of the present Board
are Rector Joseph H. McConnell, C. Waller
Barrett, Mrs. E. Parker Brown, J. Hartwell
Harrison, W. Wright Harrison, Edwin L. Kendig,
Jr., J. Sloan Kuykendall, Lawrence Lewis, Jr.,
Edwin K. Mattern, Mrs. E. Alton Parrish,
Brownie E. Polly, Jr., William S. Potter, Donald
E. Santarelli, Hugh Scott, C. Stuart Wheatley,
Jr., and J. Harvie Wilkinson III.

Mr. McConnell of Richmond, president of
Reynolds Metals Co., is Rector of the
University. He succeeds Frank W. Rogers, a
Roanoke lawyer, as the presiding officer of the
Board of Visitors.

Mr. McConnell, a native of Chester, S.C.,
became president of Reynolds Metals in 1963
and is a former president of
Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. and the National
Broadcasting Co.

He graduated from Davidson College and
received his law degree from the University in
1931. While at Davidson he was a center on the
football team and after entering law school,
helped coach freshman football.

Law School Graduate

After graduating from the University's law
school, Mr. McConnell practiced law in North
Carolina, Florida, and New York. He was
general attorney for the RCA Victor Division of
the Radio Corporation of America from
1942-1947, and vice-president in charge of law
and finance from 1947 to 1949 before being
named executive vice-president.

Mr. McConnell was president of NBC from
1949 to 1952 and joined
Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. as president in
1953. He was named general counsel and
director of Reynolds Metals Co. in 1955 and
was executive vice president from 1959 to 1963
when he became president and chief
administrative officer.

Phi Beta Kappa

A director of Canadian British Aluminum
Co., Basic, Inc., Mr. McConnell is an honorary
trustee of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co.
He is a fishing and golf enthusiast who owns
two camps in North Carolina for young people.
He is a member of Kappa Alpha and Phi Beta
Kappa.

Mr. Barrett, an alumnus and benefactor of
the University, graduated from the University
in 1920, and is currently president and
Chairman of Norgulf Corporation. Born in
Alexandria, he attended Alexandria High
School (now George Washington High School)
and graduated valedictorian of his class.

Mr. Barrett has spent 35 years of his life in
the shipping industry in roles that ranged from
common seaman to shipping clerk to
half-owner of a fleet of as many as 80 vessels.
He is also of Eastern Broadcasting Corporation
and a member of the New York City Art
Commission.

Besides editing or publishing several books
and teaching for a semester as a visiting
professor at the University of California at
Berkeley, Mr. Barrett is a collector of books —
first editions, rare books, and manuscripts of
American literature.

In 1960, he presented his collection of more
than 300,000 American books and manuscripts
— described as the most comprehensive of its
kind — to the University of Virginia's Alderman
Library. The appraised value of this collection
is ten million dollars.

In addition to serving as Chairman of the
Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, Mr.
Barrett is a trustee of the McGregor Library at
the University. He is a trustee of the New York
Public Library and a member of the Board of
Regents of the James Monroe Memorial
Library.

For his contributions to the University, Mr.
Barrett has received the Raven Society Award,
the Z Society Award, the 7 Society Award, and
honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa. His
philanthropic actions include yearly donations
to the Barrett Library and gifts to the Barrett
Foundation, a charitable organization. He also
donated the rare book room of Alderman
Library.

Joseph H. McConnell

Rector of the Board of Visitors