Charles R. Fenwick

Early life and education

Fenwick was born on August 11, 1900, in Falls Church, Virginia, to banker Edward Taylor Fenwick (who in 1937 became president of the Arlington and Fairfax Building & Loan Association) and his wife the former Clara Gulagher. He graduated at the top of his class from Western High School in Washington DC (where he also captained the football team). He then volunteered and joined the tank corps of the University of Virginia's Student Army Training Corps during World War I, but the war ended before private Fenwick was transferred overseas. Fenwick then began attending the University of Virginia, studying engineering beginning in 1919. In 1922, a year after he transferred to the University of Virginia's academic school, Fenwick helped found the formed Beta chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity. Fenwick played varsity football as a tackle (and was named to several regional all-star teams) as well as boxed as a heavyweight for three of his undergraduate years (losing only one bout and winning a spot as alternate on the U.S. Olympic team). In 1924, Fenwick graduated from the University of Virginia, and later attended post-graduate studies at George Washington University before receiving his LL.B. from the University of Virginia in 1925. He much later became president of the alumni association and in 1962 became the first recipient of the Virginia Hall of Fame Award for distinguished achievements after leaving college. He also became a charter member of the Touchdown Club of Washington, D.C., and served as its third president

In 1929, Fenwick married Eleanor Russell Eastman, a Presbyterian, though he did not change his Baptist affiliation. They had no children, but in 1946 moved into what had been her father's house in Arlington, Everbloom, which was later declared historically significant. Fenwick also owned a farm in Cumberland County, Virginia.

Legal career

Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1924, Fenwick was a patent attorney and practiced at a law firm his grandfather founded in 1861, Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence. He also coached the football line at U.Va. and later in the 1920s at the University of Maryland. Beginning in 1934 until his death, Fenwick served as a member of the Virginia State Wrestling and Boxing Commission (now the Boxing, Martial Arts and Professional Wrestling Advisory Board). He was also president of the local Rotary Club.

Political career

Fenwick began leading the Arlington (and Falls Church) chapter of the Young Democrats in 1931 during the Great Depression, eventually chairing the County Democratic Committee and serving on the Democratic State Committee, which by then was unofficially led by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd.

Fenwick was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates representing Arlington County in 1939 and served in the House from 1940 to 1946. During that World War II period, the legislative position being part-time, Fenwick also served as chief of the Royalty Adjustment Branch at an Army Air Forces base in Ohio, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also sat on the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council. In 1944 Fenwick ran for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary, which became an embarrassment to the Byrd Organization's "clean government" image – because the vote totals for Fenwick in Wise County (winning 3,307 to 122) and for L. Preston Collins in Appomattox County (winning 1610 to 25) seemed improbable (Byrd had endorsed neither, and the third candidate Leonard Muse of Roanoke often criticized the Byrd Organization). When a Richmond judge threw out the Wise County returns, Fenwick did not pursue an inquiry into the Appomattox returns, but accepted defeat.

In 1947, Fenwick ran for, and was elected to, the Virginia Senate representing the 22nd Senate District after the retirement of Sen. William D. Medley. He was a delegate to 1952 Democratic National Convention from Virginia. Fenwick also served as a member of the Virginia Democratic State Central Committee from 1952 – 1964. He failed to win the Democratic primary for governor in 1953. In 1956, the Virginia Senate was redistricted and Fenwick was elected from the 9th District (which still consisted of all of Arlington County) and was re-elected until his death in 1969.

Especially after the United States Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and 1955, Arlington became embroiled in Massive Resistance. Its elected school board wanted to desegregate, but Senator Byrd declared his opposition to desegregated schools anywhere in Virginia. Segregationists within the Byrd Organization, especially in Southside Virginia, wanted to close any school which desegregated, even pursuant to an order of a federal court, as Arlington also faced. Arlington's local elected school board was replaced with an appointed one, and even that proved insufficiently segregationist for some.

Death and memorials

On February 22, 1969, Fenwick died of complications about a month after major surgery for diverticulitis at a local hospital and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Falls Church, Virginia. Governor Mills Godwin and former U.S. Representative Howard W. Smith were among the many distinguished attendees at the funeral, in addition to his wife, sisters Mrs. John Demarest, Mrs. Boynton P. Livingston, Mrs. J.R. Browning and Mrs. Donald K. Addie, as well as family friends Mrs. William Tate and Mrs. Charles H. Smith of Richmond and over 800 additional mourners.

The Fenwick Library at George Mason University is named after Fenwick, due to his role as an advocate for the University when it was first being founded. A Washington Metro bridge linking Arlington and the District of Columbia is named for Senator Fenwick. In 1978, Arlington named its human resources center on Walter Reed Drive after Fenwick, although the building no longer exists.