Robert S. Burruss Jr.

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia to R.S. Burruss and his wife, Ada Steptoe Moorman, Buruss attended the public schools, including E.C. Glass High School. He then attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia, graduating with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

During World War II, Burruss served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, mostly in the European Theater, for five years from 1940 to 1945. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He married Margaret Hanna "Peggy" Brooks on May 24, 1947, and they had children Rebecca Moorman Burruss (b. 1948), James Robert Burruss (b. 1950), Hanna Brooks Burruss Whaley (b. 1953) and Mary Scott Burruss (b. 1957).

Burruss operated the R.S. Burruss Lumber Company and Ralco Stores, Inc. together with his relative William H. Burruss. He also served as director of the Royal Crown Bottling Company of Lynchburg, the Lynchburg branch of the First and Merchants National Bank, and the Lumber Manufacturers Association of Virginia (also once as president).[3]

Democrat and lawyer Mosby Perrow Jr. represented Lynchburg (part-time) for two decades in the Virginia state Senate. However, desegregation following the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education was very controversial, as Virginia's Democratic U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd and his Byrd Organization called for Massive Resistance, and successive Virginia governors even shut down schools rather than permit them to desegregate. After Governor J. Lindsay Almond Jr. split with the Byrd Organization and agreed to reopen schools after decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court and a 3-judge federal district court panel on January 19, 1959, the Perrow Commission was formed to transition. In the next Democratic primary election, however Perrow faced opposition, and lost his bid for re-election to fellow Democrat Bert F. Dodson. However, Republican Burruss narrowly defeated Dodson in the general election (6904 votes to 6694), and so succeeded Perrow to what was then the 12th senatorial district seat in 1964.[4]

His father (R.S. Burruss Sr.) had served as an alternate delegate to the 1932 Republican National Convention, and this Burruss became a delegate from Virginia to the 1964 Republican National Convention.[5]

After redistricting following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Mann, Lynchburg was no longer combined with Campbell County, but with Amherst County as senate District 10. Buruss, however, won re-election. After the 1970 census, redistricting added Bedford County and the city of Bedford, and renumbered the district as the 23rd. Burruss again won re-election until 1975 (rising to minority leader), and was succeeded by Democrat Elliot S. Schewel in 1976.

Burruss died in Lynchburg, Virginia on June 21, 1978, and was buried at Spring Hill Cemetery. His widow joined him in 2011.[6] The Burruss Land and Lumber Company decided to sell its two flooring plants and about 120,000 acres of land (some jointly owned with then-[resident William H. Burruss Jr.) in the middle 1970s, which led to litigation after this Burruss' death concerning a real estate broker's commission pursuant to an "open listing" contract with the United Farm Agency, which was a subsidiary of a Kansas City, Kansas company.[7]