Charles Wright Sydnor, Jr.

Dr. Charles Wright Sydnor, Jr., 82, inaugurated as 18th President of Emory & Henry College in 1984, passed away Friday, November 28.

Dr. Sydnor’s seven-year presidency was marked by several accomplishments. He sought to nourish E&H values, including the liberal arts and scholarship, by implementing the Western Tradition program -- an ambitious year-long course for first-year students. His administration also oversaw significant restructuring and strengthening of the Emory & Henry Board of Trustees and the renovation of numerous campus buildings. Under his leadership, Emory & Henry experienced unprecedented growth in financial strength and philanthropy, significantly increasing the institution’s endowment.

He was born August 26, 1943 in Jefferson City, Tennessee, in the middle of World War II, and with his family subsequently moved to Richmond, Virginia and Sandston, Virginia, circa 1950. He graduated from Emory & Henry in 1965, during the Vietnam War and a time of national turmoil. Both periods would help shape his future, one helping to mold him as a nationally recognized German Holocaust history scholar, the other influencing him as a visionary college president.

After graduating from Emory & Henry, Dr. Sydnor was awarded a fellowship at Vanderbilt University, where he received both a master’s degree and a doctorate in modern German Holocaust history, winning honors for his dissertation.

When Dr. Sydnor assumed the presidency of Emory & Henry, he had found success in three diverse careers -- as a teacher and scholar at The Ohio State University and Longwood College, as a film producer of television documentaries for PBS, and as the special assistant to former Virginia Governor Charles S. Robb.

In 1977, he wrote Soldiers of Destruction: A History of the SS Death’s Head Division 1933-1945. In 1979, he was awarded the James Harvey Robinson Prize of the American Historical Association. He later served as a writer, researcher and executive producer on several television documentaries covering subjects from Nazi Germany to American history.

From 1982 until 2006, Dr. Sydnor served as an expert witness for the Office of Special Investigations in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, testifying in de-naturalization cases brought against former SS concentration camp guards.

In 1992, following his departure from Emory & Henry, Dr. Sydnor was named President and CEO of Central Virginia Educational Telecommunications Corporation (now VPM Media Corporation), a position he held until 2006. In 1995, he received the Edward R. Murrow Award for his role as executive producer on a 50-year D-Day anniversary retrospective titled “A Soldier’s Day: D-Day Remembered.”

Always the embodiment of Emory & Henry’s historic motto, “Increase in Excellence,” in 2006 Dr. Sydnor was invited by the president of the institution to return to campus and serve as an ambassador and fundraising officer, an opportunity he enthusiastically embraced.

Near the end of his professional career, Dr. Sydnor accepted the position of President and Executive Director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum. This opportunity gave him great pleasure and merged his scholarship in World War II history with his desire to be of service.

The current president of Emory & Henry, Dr. Lou Fincher, praised Sydnor for his ability, both through his words and his actions, to identify the essential character of the institution and fortify its relevance to generations of young people searching for purpose. “Rarely does a college president define with such eloquence, passion and decision the potential of the institution and the people who embrace it,” she said.

At Emory & Henry’s spring convocation in 1990, Dr. Sydnor spoke of the youth of the 1960s as a culture eager for peace and freedom and animated by service and self-sacrifice. “What have we become?” he asked. “Have we traded the idealism of self-sacrifice for the cult of self-indulgence? Are we unable to distinguish between shallow celebrity and substantive leadership?”

He continued, “Be not afraid to make history and to change the world. You can and you must. The hope that sustains the human spirit, through the darkest passages and the brightest days, is the simple belief that what is to come will always be better than that which now is.”

Dr. Sydnor is survived by his wife, Joanne Allison Sydnor; sister, Nancy Sydnor-Greenberg; children, Matthew David Henry Sydnor, Daniel Charles Wright Sydnor, Emily Ruth Marie Spivak and husband, Adam, and Nathaniel Joseph Anson Sydnor and their mother, Linda Ruth Edwards; Kristie Allison Jennings and Karla Jo Allison; grandchildren, Anson Silver Hite Sydnor, Jewel Evalea Mattax Sydnor, Ruby Helyn Spivak, Cora Marie Spivak, Lillie Mae Spivak, Olivia Marie Jennings, Abigail Kathleen Jennings and Vincent Joseph Fugo III. Additional survivors include Judy Sydnor, Barbara Young, several nieces and nephews and a wide circle of friends.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Frances Quarles and Charles Wright Sydnor, Sr; and his brother, James “Nim” Sydnor.

Services will be held on Sunday, December 14, at 2:00 p.m. in the Memorial Chapel of Emory & Henry followed by a reception in the Fellowship Hall. A private interment will be held in the Holston Conference Cemetery at Emory.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Charles W. Sydnor, Jr. Endowed Scholarship at Emory & Henry, Office of Philanthropy & Engagement, PO Box 950, Emory, VA 24327 or online at emoryhenry.edu/giving/give-online.