DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300246

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY GUY FRIDDELL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   58 lines

UNITED WAY GIVES HIGHEST HONOR TO LANDMARK CHIEF

The United Way of South Hampton Roads chose Monday to salute Frank Batten, board chairman of Landmark Communications, with its highest honor, the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award.

At the society's luncheon in the Town Point Club for a circle of leading contributors, Harvey L. Lindsay described Batten as an outstanding regional leader years before that concept became a byword.

From the time Batten became publisher, at age 27, of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, he worked to unite the ports of Hampton Roads, to harmonize military and civilian communities, and to knit the six localities in roads.

Batten's concern has been education at every level. When the state's Massive Resistance to desegregation forced the closing of Norfolk's white secondary public schools in 1958-59, Batten and former Mayor Pretlow Darden ``took the lead in bringing us to our senses and to doing the right thing'' in reopening schools, Lindsay recalled.

``He served eight years as Old Dominion University's first rector,'' he said. He gave a major assist to the capital campaign he now co-chairs.

At Virginia Wesleyan College his wife, Jane, heads the board of trustees. The Battens set up a scholarship program and made a gift to the campaign she chairs for a new academic building.

He also was president of Norfolk Academy's board of trustees in 1978. He founded the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation for financing a college education for needy youths in the public schools of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

In 1964, Lindsay said, Batten, as president and campaign manager, led in raising $1.7 million, 10 percent over the goal of the United Communities Fund, predecessor of United Way.

``A leader among leaders,'' Batten helped create an environment of excellence to serve for years to come,'' Lindsay said.

He cited Batten's report that ``the United Way means a way of doing things. It is not an inflexible institution but a dynamic force of meeting community needs.

``We must be mindful that the United Way is a voluntary movement with volunteers as its leaders. It is on these people we must depend if we are to be a vital force in providing the service which this community deserves and must have.''

In 1987, Batten helped found the De Tocqueville Society and that year he bestowed its award on Henry Clay Hofheimer. Later, Harry Price also received it. Batten and his volunteers recruited 16 members.

Robin Ray, who chairs the society, reported it raised $658,000 last year and $3.8 million since 1987. It now has 51 members.

Saying he could not think of any award he valued more than the society's, Batten recalled how successive drives failed during the paralysis of the Depression.

In a mass meeting in Blair Junior High School, Batten noted, Norfolk's citizenry resolved ``to muster the will to revive the campaign and carry it to success.''

That determined, successful effort ``was a turning point in history,'' Batten said, ``and it is critical we continue to preserve that spirit of local citizens taking action.''

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