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1999 SESSION


SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 555
On the death of Paul Mellon.

Agreed to by the Senate, February 25, 1999
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 26, 1999

WHEREAS, Paul Mellon, a long-time resident of Fauquier County and one of the most prominent and generous philanthropists of the 20th century, died on February 1, 1999; and

WHEREAS, the son and heir of Andrew W. Mellon, a financier and industrialist, Paul Mellon graduated from the Choate School in Connecticut, Yale University, and Clare College, Cambridge University; and

WHEREAS, entering World War II as a private in the U.S. Army, Paul Mellon earned a commission, was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services in Europe, and at the end of the war was a major with four Bronze Stars; and

WHEREAS, in 1931 Paul Mellon purchased 400 acres near Upperville in northern Fauquier County, thus beginning a legacy of service to the Commonwealth that was to last for more than 60 years; and

WHEREAS, a noted horseman, Paul Mellon bred and raced thoroughbreds, and his Rokeby Stud became home to nearly 100 stakes winners, including 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero; and

WHEREAS, Paul Mellon’s generosity to the people of Virginia was remarkably varied, ranging from a small gift that revolutionized health and sanitation on Tangier Island 50 years ago to the more than $50 million he gave over the years to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; and

WHEREAS, Paul Mellon donated to the Commonwealth more than 1,000 acres of fields and woods near Paris, in Fauquier County, that became Sky Meadows State Park; and

WHEREAS, Paul Mellon was responsible for the Virginia Tech Forage Research Station site south of Middleburg and the Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, one of the most beautiful rural churches in America; and

WHEREAS, beginning in 1938, Paul Mellon donated more than 2,000 works of art to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, was the longest-serving trustee in the museum’s history, and, through his foundation, paid for the construction of the museum’s theater wing, home of TheatreVirginia; and

WHEREAS, following in the footsteps of his father, who founded the National Gallery of Art in 1937, Paul Mellon donated more than 900 works of art to the museum, in the process bringing to widespread public attention the work of such masters as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Degas; and

WHEREAS, an enthusiastic sportsman, collector, and philanthropist, Paul Mellon, through his extraordinarily generous gifts to the people of the Commonwealth and the nation, leaves a peerless legacy of taste, discretion, sensitivity, and service; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of a true Virginia gentleman, Paul Mellon; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Paul Mellon as an expression of the high regard in which his memory is held by the members of the General Assembly and the people of Virginia.