Charles Sydnor Jr., the 18th president of Emory & Henry College who later ran the organization now known as VPM Media Corporation for 14 years, died on Nov. 28, according to an obituary. He was 82.
Sydnor had various roles throughout his career: from a history professor at Longwood University to an award-winning documentary producer, to Gov. Charles S. Robb’s speechwriter and special assistant in the 1980s.
After serving as Emory & Henry College’s president, Sydnor was president and CEO of Central Virginia Educational Telecommunications Corporation (now known as VPM Media Corporation) from 1992 until 2006.
Jayme Swain, president and CEO of VPM and the Virginia Foundation for Public Media, called Sydnor’s passing a “deeply sad day at VPM.” She remembered him as a “brilliant storyteller, both in person and through his writing and production of several PBS documentaries.”
“Public media was one of his deepest passions, and he cared profoundly about the people of this organization and the community we serve,” Swain told VPM News in a statement. “I feel fortunate to have spent time learning from Charlie. His impact and legacy at VPM will endure, and he will be greatly missed.”
Sydnor was born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, on Aug. 26, 1943. His family subsequently moved to Virginia, where they lived in Richmond and Sandston.
After graduating from Emory & Henry in 1965, Sydnor returned to the Southwest Virginia school to serve as its president from 1984 to 1991.
“Rarely does a college president define with such eloquence, passion and decision the potential of the institution and the people who embrace it,” E&H President Lou Fincher said in a statement.
Sydnor received a master’s degree and a doctorate in modern German Holocaust history from Vanderbilt University. From 2013–15, he served as the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s president and executive director before returning as its senior historian.
He was also an expert witness for the US Department of Justice from 1982 to 2006 in cases against former Nazi Germany concentration camp guards accused of lying about their service to obtain US visas and citizenship.
Sydnor’s testimony, affidavits and expert witness reports helped lead to 23 former SS guards being either de-naturalized or deported, according to the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s website.
Sydnor won an Edward R. Murrow Award in 1995 as executive producer of the Virginia Currents episode “A Soldier’s Day: D-Day Remembered,” a retrospective on the 50th anniversary of World War II’s D-Day.
He was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 2005, according to a 2025 resolution passed by the state House of Delegates.
Sydnor is survived by his wife, Joanne, his children and several grandchildren.
Funeral services for Sydnor will be Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. — 30450 Armbrister Dr. in Emory — at the Memorial Chapel of Emory & Henry. It is followed by a reception in the Mason Fellowship Hall.
Disclosure: VPM News is an independent newsroom owned by VPM Media Corporation. Questions about this article can be sent to Managing Editor Dawnthea M. Price Lisco and News Director Elliott Robinson.
