DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120491

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   88 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** The wrong photo ran with a story Wednesday about the death of g1fyi13 V. Alfred ``Jack'' Etheridge V. Alfred ``Jack'' Etheridge. He is shown in the photo at left. Also, Etheridge's age was wrong in the story; he was 79 when he died. Correction published Thursday, November 13, 1997. ***************************************************************** AFFABLE FATHER OF VIRGINIA BEACH FINANCES DIES

V. Alfred ``Jack'' Etheridge, who died Monday at age 75, was an affable country politician who introduced modern fiscal practices to the government of Virginia Beach.

For 22 years, he was treasurer, first of Princess Anne County and then of the city of Virginia Beach after the merger of those two principalities.

Handsome, quiet spoken and soft walking, Etheridge peppered conversations with ``Yes suh. . . No suh,'' a beguiling custom among rural Southern political leaders. Few of that courteous lot are left.

A personable, civil, country boy, Etheridge was quite urbane but tough and canny enough to survive fierce tribal warfare that broke out every so often in Virginia Beach.

He began as a lieutenant of boss Sidney Kellam. Kellam, another genial country boy, was himself a lieutenant of Harry Flood Byrd of Berryville. For 40 years Byrd led his Organization from apple orchards in the Valley of Virginia.

In 1966, when Kellam backed U.S. Sen. A. Willis Robertson in his bid for re-election, Etheridge supported State Sen. William B. Spong Jr. of Portsmouth. In winning the skin-tight state race, Spong carried Virginia Beach by 2,200 votes.

Etheridge was one of 13 children raised on a farm in Creeds. His mother named him as she did his 12 siblings; but his father gave them nicknames. Everybody called Vernon Alfred Etheridge ``Jack.''

He attended local schools and the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary - now Old Dominion University - and went back to farming.

He entered county government on the first rung as a building inspector and zoning enforcement officer. In 1951 he was elected to the Virginia Senate. He also was executive secretary for the county's board of supervisors. He worked without pay in that post but accrued power, knowledge and influence.

Jack was climbing his beanstalk. After a four-year term in the Senate, he became county treasurer and, following the merger, he took over as city treasurer.

In an interview when he retired in 1977, he told The Virginian-Pilot's Gene Owens: ``I encouraged the board of supervisors to put in the first planning commission, the first recreation director, and the first department of finance so we could have fingertip control of city finances.

``Up to then, the county sometimes had to wait six months after the end of the fiscal year before the necessary audits had been performed and it knew whether it had overshot or undershot its budget.''

In the Senate, he met J. Gordon Bennett, state auditor of public accounts. He asked Bennett to send someone to Princess Anne to help set up a finance department. Bennett dispatched a bright young man. Giles Dodd, who set up the department and accepted the job of director of finance.

Etheridge's reforms diluted the clout of the local constitutional officers and helped clear the way for a full-time city manager with a city council that met once a week instead of the two-week intervals of the board of supervisors.

``Jack was a politician, but he operated a very professional treasurer's office,'' Dodd said Tuesday. ``The steps he took were the genesis of the modern Virginia Beach government. We owe him a debt of gratitude.''

Etheridge, who had won the first honorary award of being the state's outstanding city treasurer, made a strong bid in 1961 to become state treasurer in the administration of Gov.-elect Albertis S. Harrison Jr.

County treasurers and commissioners of revenue across the state urged Harrison to select Etheridge, a past president of the State Association of Treasurers; but Harrison chose to name his former campaign manager, Chesterfield County Clerk Lewis H. Vaden, for the post.

Etheridge continued modernizing the government of Virginia Beach, which probably was an even more difficult chore than being state treasurer.

In retiring, he noted that ``the cost of elections had gotten completely out of hand'' and he didn't feel it fair to ask his friends to put up $35,000 to $40,000 for a campaign.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Virginia Beach at Nimmo United Methodist Church on Princess Anne Road. ILLUSTRATION: V. Alfred ``Jack'' Etheridge was treasurer for 22

years, first of Princess Anne County and then of the city of

Virginia Beach. KEYWORDS: PROFILE DEATH OBITUARY

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