I shot these about 15 years ago. George always had a great face.

George Kegley: A Loss We Can't Afford

The death Monday of George Kegley will be felt strongly all over Western Virginia because George, who was in his 90s, may well have been the most valuable citizen of this region for the past 50 years.

He was a journalist, a historian, an extraordinary blood donor, a mentor, a friend to thousands who treasured the life he lived. Many of us thought--hoped--he would never die because we couldn't afford to lose him. For years, I greeted George with, "Damn, George, aren't you dead yet?" and he'd chuckle, which is about as close to a belly laugh as I ever saw.

For the 10 years that I worked for The Roanoke Times, George (a news reporter for 42 years) was a quiet, respected recorder of business news. A managing editor once told me George was "the king of the 12-inch news story. He has at least one every day." Nobody scooped George on business news, but he never made a big deal out of his exclusives because that was George's way. 

George was married to Louise for nearly 60 years. She was a reporter, historian and granddaughter of long-time Times owner Junius Blair Fishburn. She died four years ago.

George never bragged, never looked to be in the light, always sought the participation and opinion of others, always had the messiest desk in Western civilization. He was famous in newspaper circles for that.

I'm not sure he ever even entered the journalism competitions that many cherished. My guess is that George thought that if he felt he was doing a good job, the Press Association didn't need to tell him about it.

On the flip side of that, he nominated me for the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame and I was approved unanimously. I will always be grateful to George for that consideration, though I have never thought I deserved it. That he thought so is as important to me as the unanimous vote the nomination received.

George won major awards for preservation, conservation/environmentalism, being a father (Father of the Year), being a citizen (Roanoke Citizen of the Year). He frequently read for the deaf on Public Radio's reading service. He was always modest, and always had an acceptance speech that almost nobody could hear because he was so soft-spoken.

George was personally responsible for salvaging much of Roanoke's physical history. He was mortified when the glorious American Theatre was torn down in the early 1970s and helped put together the Preservation Foundation of Western Virginia to guard against that kind of historical abuse in the future. He didn't win all the battles, but he fought them. He found allies. The Foundation made developers aware of what they might be doing to our history and discouraged many of them.

George, a Wytheville native who lived in Roanoke's oldest home, was a beloved man, a good man, a man of honesty, integrity, grit, strong belief and of kindness. George Kegley was a worthy man, one I loved and respected far beyond what he knew.

I was one of the fortunate ones to work with George and the entire group of writers/reporters at The Times and The World-News (I worked at both) during my tenure there, mostly in sports, from 1971 to 1981. People like Ozzie Osbourne, Ben Beagle, Mary Bland Armistead, Frank Hancock, Mike Ives, Chris Gladden, Margie Fisher, Buster Carico, Bill Brill and Sandra Kelly--among others--served as role models for this young, struggling journalist.