THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180028
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 30 lines
Modern proverb: Those who nuture their roots are destined to flower.
Or so it would seem with actor/ director Tim Reid, a Virginian who - along with his wife, Daphne Maxwell Reid - has plowed energy, creativity and money back into his native soil.
The Reids recently announced plans to build an $11 million movie studio in Petersburg, one of Virginia's most historic and most economically imperiled cities. The studio is expected to create about 100 jobs, and the Reids' promise to hire locals for most of them is welcome.
Of course, the couple's interest in improving the Old Dominion comes as no surprise to residents of Norfolk, where Tim Reid grew up.
Annually, the Reids host a Celebrity Weekend that brings movie and television stars to South Hampton Roads for tennis, golf and fund raising. Last year, Norfolk State University reaped about $160,000 in scholarship money from the weekend. Receipts over the past six years total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Dozens of current and former NSU students are grateful to the Reids for full or partial scholarships.
An ever-widening circle of Virginians are appreciative also for the example the Reids set in civic responsibility. Tim Reid has never forgotten his roots, and the commonwealth is a lovelier place because of it. by CNB