Information Charlottesville

A man who served three terms on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and one term on the Albemarle School Board has died at the age of 75. Kenneth C. Boyd left office at the end of 2015 after representing the Rivanna District as Supervisor for 12 years and moved to North Carolina sometime afterward, according to an obituary published in the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Boyd is a native of Washington D.C. who moved to Albemarle County in the early 80’s for a job at Jefferson National Bank. He went into business for himself as a financial planner and got involved with politics soon after. Boyd was elected to the Rivanna District on the School Board in 1999. He defeated Democrat Peter Hallock in the 2003 race with 52.56 percent of the race and posted similar narrow victories in 2007 and 2011. 

A longtime champion of Charlottesville’s Black community died last week at the age of 85. According to an obituary in the Daily Progress, John Gaines passed away on August 22 at the University of Virginia Medical Center. 

Gaines graduated from Burley High School in 1953 when it was still the segregated school for Black students for both Albemarle County and Charlottesville. After attending the Hampton Institute, he returned to Charlottesville to become a teacher and then an administrator including a long stint at principal at Jefferson Elementary School, which was closed and eventually turned into a community center. 

When the Albemarle Supervisors met on Wednesday, Supervisor Ann Mallek noted the passing of Leigh Middleditch, a lawyer with a long history in Charlottesville affairs, at the age of 92.

“People of his and my parents’ generation worked in so many different ways to build community here,” Mallek said. “He was always focused on collaboration and finding solutions with people of all comers, all ages, all neighborhoods, all locations.”