THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407150020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
John Riddick Burton was an ebullient, generous man, an official greeter of Navy ships for his hometown of Norfolk. At his death in 1992, at age 93, he left a half-million dollars for a downtown-Norfolk memorial ``dedicated to the members of our armed forces who in the various wars did make the supreme sacrifice in defense of our country.''
The memorial he wanted is projected for Town Point beside the Elizabeth River. Norfolk City Council recently accepted a $500,000 check from the executors of the Burton estate, and City Hall has invited architects and artists to compete for the memorial-design commission. Qualified candidates for the design work were identified by a major's advisory committee, which visited several modern memorials.
The Town Point site is a highly appropriate one, considering Hampton Roads' links to American history; among these, Jamestown, Yorktown, Lord Dunmore's New Year's Day 1776 shelling of Norfolk, the Gosport Navy Yard that became the Naval Shipyard, Fort Monroe, the first clash of ironclads and the Norfolk Naval Base.
Gifts to governments are the exception, as was noted in a recent editorial welcoming $198,000 in grants to Norfolk from the M. Dan Dalis Foundation. But Norfolk has been exceptionally fortunate in the gifts it has received.
Norfolk Botanical Garden received a $1 million donation for major construction. A million-dollar gift was the standout contribution that transformed the city-owned Center Theater into the Harrison Opera House.
The municipally owned Chrysler Museum is one of the leading small fine-arts museum's of America because of private beneficence - notably, the late Walter P. Chrysler Jr.'s, and also a legion of other men and women who have poured money and art objects into the institution since its founding more than a half-century ago. Private-sector contributions renovated the Wells Theater.
In the past year, a dozen or more businesses, professionals and individuals donated to Norfolk municipal programs as varied as the public library, policing, anti-drug education and Harbor Park shuttle buses. Each public-spirited contribution is a vote of confidence in the old port city. by CNB