Mills E. Godwin Jr. Papers, 1947-1989.

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440

Summary

Creator:
Godwin family, Watkins Moorman Abbitt, Harry Flood Byrd, 1887-1966, Harry Flood Byrd, 1914- , Virginia Governor (1978-1982 : Dalton), Becky Katherine Godwin, Mills E. Godwin Jr., Henry E. (Henry Evans) Howell, Carter O. (Carter Olin) Lowance, J. Sargeant (Julian Sargeant) Reynolds, A. Willis (Absalom Willis) Robertson, Howard Worth Smith, William B. (William Belser) Spong, Thomas B. (Thomas Bahnson) Stanley, Allie Edwards Stokes Stephens, William M.(William Munford) Tuck.
Abstract:
Papers, 1947-1989, of Mills E. Godwin, Jr., member of the Virginia House of Delegates, the Virginia Senate, lieutenant-governor and governor. Includes his correspondence; correspondence of his wife Katherine Thomas Beale Godwin and their daughter, Becky Godwin; schedules; speeches; citations; audiovisual materials; scrapbooks; and political memorabilia.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The personal papers of Mills E. Godwin, Jr., dating from 1947 to 1978, consist of 24 boxes of correspondence, 1,100 copies of speeches, schedules and appointments. Also included are 40 scrapbooks of news clippings and photographs, 159 citations and plaques, and one box of audiovisual materials, all of which pertain largely to Godwin's personal involvement in the government, political life, activities, organizations and institutions of Virginia during the 30-year period. The majority of the items comprising this collection were microfilmed by the Virginia State Library.

It should be noted that all of the above referenced papers are identified as "personal" since the official executive correspondence of Godwin's two terms as governor of Virginia (1966-1970 and 1974-1978) has been placed by statute in the Archives Branch of the Virginia State Library. In connection with the personal papers, however, and available to researchers, are copies of the guide to the executive correspondence. The guide is on file with the Curator of Manuscripts at the Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

In addition to Godwin's personal papers, the collection includes a small quantity of Mrs. Godwin's correspondence and papers of their daughter, Becky, who was fatally struck by lightning in 1968, at the age of 15, at Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Included among these papers is correspondence of, or concerning, the following individuals: Watkins M. Abbitt, Harry Flood Byrd, Sr., Harry Flood Byrd, Jr., John N. Dalton, Henry E. Howell, Carter O. Lowance, Richard D. Obenshain, Julian Sargeant Reynolds, A. Willis Robertson, Howard W. Smith, William B. Spong, Thomas B. Stanley, A. E. S. Stephens, and William M. Tuck.

Among the many topics the papers cover are: the College of William and Mary, segregation, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, higher education, taxation, the contamination of the James River by kepone, the oystering industry and public mental health care.

Copies of nineteenth-century Godwin family wills are located among the several additions to the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Mills Edwin Godwin, Jr., was born November 19, 1914, at Chuckatuck in Nansemond County, now the City of Suffolk, Virginia.

He completed public school and attended the college of William and Mary. He obtained his degree in law from the University of Virginia in 1938. Honorary doctorate degrees have been awarded him by Elon College, Roanoke College, Elmira College, the College of William and Mary, Washington and Lee University, Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond and Bridgewater College.

While awaiting a commission in the U. S. Navy in World War II, he was appointed a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he served for three years prior to resuming the practice of law in Suffolk until he was elected governor of Virginia in 1965.

He first entered politics in 1948 when he began service in the House of Delegates. From 1952 to 1962 he served in the State Senate of Virginia. He was lieutenant-governor of Virginia from 1962 to 1966. During the 26 years he held public office, he ran seventeen times and was never defeated.

His first election as governor in November 1965, came after he had received the Democratic nomination without opposition.

During his administration from 1966 to 1970, he became known as "Virginia's Education Governor," taking the lead in upgrading education at every level from kindergarten through graduate school. Initiated and developed during his first term was the State's system of community colleges, two-year colleges offering occupational-technical and liberal arts training at minimum tuition. Salary increases and other improved benefits were granted teachers and faculty members. State aid to kindergartens, summer schools and classes for the handicapped encouraged broader opportunities throughout Virginia, and a number of other innovations were made in the public schools and higher education. The momentum followed a series of governor's conferences on education early in the administration. He persuaded the General Assembly to enact the Retail Sales Tax which was the first new broad-based tax passed in Virginia in more than one hundred years.

He continued and enlarged the emphasis on industrial development begun by his predecessor, Governor Harrison. He led the first two foreign trade missions and engaged in other efforts designed to attract high caliber new industry to Virginia and to encourage expansion by firms already located in the State. He saw industrial development and education as the principal means of continuing progress in Virginia.

During his tenure, Virginia made major strides also in water and air pollution control, port and park development, interstate, arterial and other highway construction, highway safety, mental health and other areas of State concern.

A blue ribbon commission appointed by Godwin proposed the State's first constitutional revision in forty years. The result was approved overwhelmingly by the voters. He also proposed the first general obligation bond issue in this century and led the campaign in which Virginia's voters approved it by a margin of more than two to one.

As governor he served as chairman of the Southern Regional Education Board, Vice Chairman of the Southern Governors Conference and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Governors Conference and the National Governors' Conference. He also served as Chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

After serving as governor from 1966 to 1970, he returned home and became a Director of Standard Brands, Inc., Norfolk and Western Railway Company, Union Camp Corporation, Virginia Real Estate Investment Trust, and Dan River, Inc. and served as a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of Virginia National Bank. He was also on the Board of Directors of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.

He resigned all of these posts after being elected governor a second time in November 1973, the first man ever twice elected by the people in Virginia to serve as Chief Executive. He was elected as the Republican nominee after being unopposed in their State Convention. He remains the only candidate in the country ever to win gubernatorial elections in the same state on both Democrat and Republican tickets.

During his second term as governor, he faced a series of crises of major proportions. The Arab oil embargo of late 1973 depressed the State's economy and the State revenues. As governor he ordered reduction of State spending by more than $200 million to keep the budget in balance and, as the economy improved later in his administration, he left a sizable surplus in the budget for his successor. Godwin dealt with the crises of shortages of gasoline, natural gas and fuel oil, the problem of Kepone, ten major floods and seven minor ones and the most serious drought in fifty years occurred in the last year of his administration which caused 115 of the State's 136 political jurisdictions to be designated as disaster areas. Despite these problems, Virginia's forward movement continued during his second term with major improvements in all areas, in job opportunities, and especially in our correctional programs and in public and higher education. He obtained approval from the General Assembly in 1977 for a Referendum on a $125 million General obligation Bond Program, largely earmarked for education and corrections, and again led the campaign which resulted in overwhelming approval for all five bond issues presented to the voters.

His leadership as governor was evidenced everywhere. Virginia's noted Pulitzer Prize winner and editor, Virginius Dabney, wrote that: "His two terms combine to form a series of constructive advances for the Commonwealth that are unsurpassed in the long history of Virginia's governors."

As governor from 1974 to 1978, he was Chairman of the Southern Governors Conference, a member of the Executive Committees of the National Governors' Conference and the Republican Governors' Conference. He was Chairman for the second time of the Southern Regional Education Board and Vice President of the Council of State Governments.

Godwin again returned to his home in Suffolk in January 1978, and served as a consultant to management and a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Virginia National Bank. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Union Camp Corporation, Standard Brands, Inc. and the Royster Company.

Married to the former Katherine Thomas Beale, Governor Godwin lived in Suffolk where for many years he owned and operated the 500-acre family farm. He has been active in the Oakland Christian Church, where he taught the Men's Bible Class for more than twenty-five years, and engaged in numerous community activities. He was a 33rd degree Mason, past president of Ruritan National, and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Delta Phi, the Raven Society and Sigma Phi Epsilon. He was the recipient of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce's Distinguished Service Award, the Virginia National Guard's Distinguished Service Medal, the Virginia Education Association's citation as "Virginia's Education Governor," the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Service from the old Dominion Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the Centennial Medal from Hampton Institute, the Virginians of Maryland Medal, the FFA State Farmer Medal, also twice received a First Citizen's Award from Suffolk and Nansemond County, and the Colgate Whitehead Darden, Jr. Award from Norfolk State College, an award exemplifying highest caliber of statesmanship and interest in education in the Commonwealth. Virginia Military Institute has given him its New Market Medal, the highest award made by V.M.I.

On January 30, 1999, Mills E. Godwin Jr. died in Newport News, Virginia at the age of 84.

Chronology
Date Event
November 19 1914 Born at Chuckatuck, Virginia, Nansemond County.Son of Otelia Dardenand Mills Edwin Godwin,Sr. Sisters: Mary Lee,Mildred Elizabethand Leah Otelia
1931 Graduated Chuckatuck High School
Class President, active in Debating and Speaking
1931-32 College of William and Mary,Norfolk Division
1932-34 College of William and Mary,Williamsburg
1935-38 University of Virginia Law School Law Degree, Raven Society, Omicron Delta Kappa
1937 Passed State Bar Examination
1938 Entered Law Profession
1940 Married Katherine Thomas Bealeof Holland, Virginia
1943-45 Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation
1946 Re-entered Law Profession
Involved in Nansemond Countycommunity programs
1947 Member of Virginia State Bar Association
Elected to Virginia House of Delegates, representing Nansemond Countyand the City of Suffolk
1948-52 Member, Virginia House of Delegates
Served on following committees: Insurance and Banking, Chesapeake and Its Tributaries, Executive Expenditures, Game and Inland Fisheries, and Nominations and Confirmations
1948 Member Board of Directors, Bank of Whaleyville, Virginia;Member Board of Trustees, Elon College, North Carolina
1949 Active in Oakland Christian Church and civic clubs, lodge, regional and other community activities
1951 Elected in special election to Virginia State Senate, Fifth Senatorial District, representing Southampton, Nansemond and Isle of Wight counties,and the cities of Suffolkand Franklin>
1952 Elected President of Ruritan National
1952-62 Member, Virginia State Senate
Served on following committees: Chairman, Fish and Game; Finance; Courts of Justice; Counties, Cities and Towns; Enrolled Bills, and Welfare
1954 Awarded Honorary Degree by Elon College
Appointed to Public School Study Commission by Thomas B. Stanley, governor of Virginia
1961 Elected lieutenant-governor of Virginia
1962-66 Served as lieutenant-governor of Virginia
1965 Elected Democratic governor of Virginia
1966-70 Served as governor of Virginia - First Administration "Virginia's Education Governor," initiated Community College System and upgraded education at all levels, persuaded General Assembly to enact retail sales tax
1966 Awarded Honorary Degree by College of William and Mary in Virginia
1967 Led first European Trade Mission
1969 Played important role in projecting a revised constitution for Virginia Awarded Honorary Degree by Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia
1970-73 Private Citizen Member, Board of Directors of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation and Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges Member, Board of Directors: Standard Brands, Inc., Norfolk and Western Railway Company, Union Camp Corporation, Virginia Real Estate Investment Trust, Dan River Mills, Inc. and Virginia National Bank (Executive Committee)
1970 Awarded Honorary Degree by Washington and Lee University Honorary chairman, Committee of Virginians for the Constitution; Advisory Committee, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. 'sU. S. Senate Campaign
1971 Served on the advisory committee, George J. Kostelfor lieutenant-governor campaign
1972 Awarded Honorary Degree by Elmira College, Elmira, New York
Advisory Committee, Re-election of President Richard M. Nixon
1973 Awarded Honorary Degree by Hampden-Sydney College
Elected Republican governor of Virginia
1974-78 Served as governor of Virginia - Second Administration
First person ever twice elected in Virginia to serve as Chief Executive and first in United States to be elected on both Democratic and Republican tickets
1974 Awarded Honorary Degree by the University of Richmond
Awarded Honorary Degree by Bridgewater College
1976 Played important role in Bicentennial celebration
1977 Awarded Navy Public Service Citation
1978 Private citizen
Returned to services as consultant and director of various boards
Awarded New Market medal by Virginia Military Institute
January 30, 1999 Died at Newport News, Virginia.

Acquisition information:
Gift: ca. 40,000 items, 1978. Gift: 3 cartons, 1985. Gift: 4 cartons, 1989. Gift: ca. 2,070 items, 1994.
Arrangement:
Organization

The collection is organized twelve series. Series 1 is correspondence of Mills E. Godwin, Jr.; Series 2 is correspondence of Katherine B. Godwin; Series 3 is correspondence of Becky Godwin; Series 4 is schedules; Series 5 is speeches; Series 6 is citations and plaques; Series 7 is audiovisual; Series 8 is scrapbooks; and Series 9 is Political Memorabilia and Selected Material. The last three series, 10-12, are additions to the collection and are group into series by their accession number. Series 10 is accession 1985.15; Series 11 is accession 1989.29; and Series 12 is accession 1994.66.

Arrangement

Series 1-10 are generally arranged chronologically. The Additions to the collection located in Series 11 and 12, are also each arranged by date.

Physical description:
ca. 42,070 items and 7 cartons.