Institute gets knowledgeable head

Tom Doran Buckingham County
Published: April 5, 2008

One item in my morning newspaper stood out like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds in one of those old inspirational paintings, against the necessary but often sad background of bad news about the economy, politics and crime.

It announced that Bob Gibson, longtime political writer for The Daily Progress, has been named to head the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

In that move, the university gained the talents of a person who is not only a scholar of political leadership and the history of government in the commonwealth, but a rich resource to the community at large.

I’ve known Bob since 1981 when we first worked together at The Daily Progress, and have marveled at the way he stood fast and grew at the newspaper while so many of us came and went over the years.

For untold reporters and editors, he has been what newspaper folk call an “institutional memory,” and one that provided not only facts and figures but context and insight.

Thousands of readers know him from his byline. Fewer know that both Bob and his wife of many years, Sarah Mc-Connell, a featured radio talent with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, have contributed much to the community while raising gifted and equally public-spirited daughters.
While other eyes looked toward trendy new subdivisions, they’ve chosen to remain in their longtime home, a lovely but unassuming older house in the Woolen Mills area. This is typical of the couple.
Elected officials often find it hard to resist showing off by verbally displaying their knowledge and intelligence when given an opportunity, and many reporters who cover them seem to adopt the same traits by osmosis.
Bob probably knows more about their offices and challenges than most of them do themselves, but he has always shown officials from city hall to the governor’s mansion the courtesy of being the interested interviewer and perpetual student of politics.
To use a word often applied to political leaders, Bob has gravitas.
If rising office seekers who attend the Sorensen Insti-tute’s political leadership classes come away with half the knowledge, good judgment and dedication to the public good that the new executive director has shown, the real winners will be the people of Virginia.
Now that he will no longer be an employee and thus ineligible for the recognition, I look forward to The Daily Progress honoring Bob Gibson in its annual series on the Distinguished Dozen residents of Central Virginia.