Sydney French Small (born October 31, 1893, in Norfolk) advanced through the Norfolk and Western Railway to become vice-president in 1935. He served as Roanoke’s mayor from 1934 to 1938, held leadership roles in regional businesses, served as a World War I Army Air Service lieutenant, and coordinated civilian defense during World War II. Married Nathalie Pace in 1922.
George Dunglinson, Jr. (1882–) was an English-born mining engineer who became executive vice-president of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company in Roanoke. The biography traces his career from Alabama Polytechnic Institute and West Virginia mining to railway leadership, civic involvement, business directorships, and family life with his wife, Marie Boyd, and daughter, Mary.
Carl H. Tabor rose from a railroad water boy in 1907 to vice-president and general manager of Norfolk and Western Railway in Roanoke. Born in Baptist Valley in 1893, he served as a Field Artillery officer during World War I and advanced through railroad management. His biography also notes his marriage to Una Lee Welsh, Methodist faith, and civic affiliations.
James Kirk Ring led Roanoke City Mills as executive vice-president from 1941, following World War I officers’ training and a career in the family-owned flour and feed business. A Virginia Military Institute graduate, he also held banking, broadcasting, civic, and fraternal roles. He married Margie Davis in 1929, and they had one son, James Kirk Ring Jr.
Robert H. Smith (1888–?) was a Baltimore native who built his entire railroad career with the Norfolk and Western Railway, advancing from chainman to president and director by 1946. A Princeton-trained civil engineer, he also served on corporate and educational boards. He and Mary Elizabeth Wysor had five children and lived in Roanoke, Virginia.
Junius Parker Fishburn was a prominent Roanoke newspaper and radio executive, banker, and civic leader. President of the Times-World Corporation, he also served on banking, railway, utility, educational, and civic boards. A Princeton graduate and Presbyterian, Fishburn married Katherine Rodes Nelson in 1926; they had two children, Sally Hart and Robert Nelson.
Junius Blair Fishburn’s biography traces his rise from a young Roanoke banker to a leading financial, publishing, and civic figure in Virginia. It details his family heritage, marriage and children, decades with the National Exchange and First National Exchange Banks, leadership in business, major land and park donations, educational service, church work, and extensive organizational affiliations.
Samuel Thomas Brown (1896–) was a Cornell-trained mechanical engineer, industrial executive, and consulting engineer who led several coal companies and the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company. A United States Naval Reserve ensign, he belonged to prominent civic, fraternal, and business organizations and lived in Roanoke with his wife, Katherine, and their three children.
Robert L. Lynn was a longtime Roanoke business leader and president of S. H. Heironimus Company, one of the Shenandoah Valley’s leading department stores. A Virginia Military Institute graduate, he was active in civic and religious organizations. Lynn married Virginia Dawson in 1935, and they had three children: Robert, Elizabeth, and Richard.
Robert Lee Lynn rose from a clerk in Roanoke’s Heironimus and Brugh store to president of the S. H. Heironimus Company, shaping its growth into a leading Shenandoah Valley department store. A civic, commercial, and church leader, he served the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Calvary Baptist Church, and other organizations before his death in 1936.