Bill Text: VA SJR215 | 2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Commending George Harrison Gilliam.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-03-07 - Bill text as passed Senate and House (SJ215ER) [SJR215 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-SJR215-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, George Harrison Gilliam has been a lifelong leader in public service, as well as an attorney, author, historian, and teacher of the history of the Commonwealth at the University of Virginia; and
WHEREAS, a graduate of Columbia University and the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law, George Gilliam was a lawyer in private practice in Charlottesville from 1968 to 1996 and served as assistant attorney for the Commonwealth in Charlottesville from 1968 to 1970; and
WHEREAS, from 1972 to 1976, George Gilliam served on the Charlottesville City Council, and he was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Seventh Congressional District in 1974; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam was the chair of the State Board for Community Colleges, the governing body for Virginia's 23 community colleges, to which he was appointed by Governor Charles S. Robb in 1982 and reappointed by Governor Gerald L. Baliles in 1986; and
WHEREAS, from 1986 to 1993, George Gilliam represented the Commonwealth as a commissioner on the Education Commission of the States; and
WHEREAS, from 1989 to 1993, George Gilliam served as the chair of the Pesticide Control Board, a regulatory board created in 1989 by the Virginia General Assembly; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam offered his leadership to numerous volunteer organizations as an officer or board member, including as president of Camp Holiday Trails, a camp for medically handicapped children, and the first chair of a regional community mental health services board in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam was a member of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission from 1975 to 1978, and was a member of the Board of Piedmont Virginia Community College from 1976 to 1982, serving as chair from 1980 to 1982; he also served on the vestry of St. Paul's Memorial Church, which is adjacent to UVA's campus and the church home to many UVA students; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam was the producer, writer, and narrator of the five-part series, "The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Virginia's History After the Civil War," produced and broadcast beginning in 1999 in cooperation with WCVE-TV, Central Virginia's PBS member station, and the Virginia Department of Education; and
WHEREAS, in continuation of his deep commitment to racial equity and community understanding, George Gilliam created and co-directed the Race and Sports/No Playbook oral history project at the Albemarle/Charlottesville Historical Society; the project preserved the stories of the first people who integrated local schools and is available to the public through the No Playbook website; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam is the author of Business Entities—A Virginia Law Practice System and Racin', a collaboration with photographer Mark Martin, that tells the story of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series era of stock car racing; and
WHEREAS, after 25 years in private law practice, George Gilliam returned to UVA at age 55 and earned a master's degree in history in 1997, and a doctorate in history in 2013; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam's master's thesis, "Making Virginia Progressive: Courts and Parties, Railroads and Regulators, 1890-1910" was published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography; his doctoral dissertation, "Building a Modern South: Political Economy in Nineteenth-Century Virginia," directed by Edward L. Ayers, examines the economic history of Virginia during the 19th century; and
WHEREAS, George Gilliam taught history at Piedmont Virginia Community College, Washington and Lee University, and UVA from 1999 until his retirement in 2022; he taught Virginia politics and government, the American history survey, seminars in Southern progressivism, and Virginia history; and
WHEREAS, over the course of his teaching career, George Gilliam taught history to hundreds of UVA students, a good number of whom were varsity athletes on scholarships; he believed that mentorship is integral to good teaching, and he took a personal interest in his students, going beyond the subject to teach basic writing skills required for success in college work, careers, and for adult life in general; and
WHEREAS, from 2003 to 2011, George Gilliam was the director of the Miller Center Forum at UVA's Miller Center and hosted approximately 400 guests for the one-hour public affairs program, which was taped before a live audience and is carried by more than 100 PBS member stations around the country; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend George Harrison Gilliam for his dedication and leadership in civic life on the local level and beyond, and for his love of teaching the history of the Commonwealth at the University of Virginia; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to George Harrison Gilliam as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for his many years of public service and his contributions to students of the University of Virginia and the Commonwealth as a whole.
