Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993 TAG: 9311100215
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN LEVIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But it was just a light braising, considering he's the man who absorbed much of the controversy about last spring's sale of homegrown Dominion Bank to First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C.
Dalhouse was described by his friends Tuesday night as an arrogant rogue - whose big ego more than compensates for his small stature - and a political kingmaker who might be waiting for the throne himself.
"It was all in good fun," Dalhouse said after four community, business and political leaders had heaped humorous ridicule on him - and in rebuttal he had evened the score. "It is a silly idea to have a roast of a guy as nice as I am."
The occasion was a fancy-dress fund-raiser at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The health agency's Blue Ridge chapter gave Dalhouse its Silver Hope Award for community service and leadership.
The idea was for "Warner to be roasted by a close friend, but we couldn't find one," said Thomas Robertson, president of Carilion Health System of Roanoke.
"There are so many stories about Warner, but few that can be publicly told," he said. "Because of his position in the community and his extensive self-promotion, we all feel we know a lot about him."
Continued Robertson:
"He's never avoided controversy. He's willing to share his opinion on any subject. He enjoyed his role as the most-quoted person in the region.
"He's always been a showoff. . . . He's never ruffled when he's reminded how big his ego is.
"He's remained cocky, with a smart mouth, but he's got the intellect to back it up."
Dalhouse, "the classic case of the local boy who made good," has spent his entire 59 years in Roanoke, except for two years as a student at the University of Virginia, Robertson noted.
And 1954-56 was "the last boom period the Roanoke Valley has enjoyed. It was the only time in his life he lived outside the valley, and I've heard it said he ought to give us a second chance."
Dalhouse's significant moment, according to former congressman M. Caldwell Butler, a member of both Dominion's and First Union's boards of directors, "was when he found himself without a dime in his pocket. . . . He resolved to challenge a monumental injustice, that no citizen of Roanoke and no visitor to Roanoke would ever be challenged by pay toilets at the Roanoke airport.
"Those who know him best will tell you it was his finest hour," Butler said.
Anne B. Hammersley, who worked with Dalhouse on development of Roanoke's Center in the Square arts complex, recalled his 40th birthday, when he arrived at the bank from the back of a hearse.
"When he told [funeral director] Sam Oakey it was hot back there, Sam said he'd never had a complaint before," Hammersley said.
Dalhouse's banking career started when he worked as a messenger at Dominion predecessor First National Exchange Bank. "As he worked his way up the corporate ladder at the bank, the good news was he never had a bad word for anyone," said Robertson. "The bad news was he was always talking about himself."
And, according to Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, when First Union acquired the company this spring, Dalhouse reportedly told the corporation's chairman, Edward Crutchfield, "how fitting to end my career as a messenger boy."
by CNB