Norfolk Historical Society Establishes George Holbert Tucker Award
News Release
February 16, 2001
Norfolk, Va. -- The Norfolk Historical Society has established the George Holbert Tucker Award to recognize the winners of an annual high school essay contest on the history of Norfolk, Va.
Open to high school students throughout Hampton Roads, the contest and award pay tribute to Norfolk historian George Holbert Tucker, whose weekly history column appears each Sunday in The Virginian-Pilot.
"For many years now, Mr. Tucker has kept the history of this region in the forefront," said James K. Sands, President of the Norfolk Historical Society. "By promoting an interest in this region's history among the next generation of students, the George Holbert Tucker Award is a fitting tribute to his outstanding contributions as one of Norfolk's leading historians."
The essay contest is open to all high school students in Hampton Roads. This year's contest marks the 225th anniversary of the Great Fire of Norfolk, which left the city in ruins at the start of the American Revolution. Complete contest guidelines have been mailed to Hampton Roads high schools and libraries, and are available on the Norfolk Historical Society's website at www.norfolkhistorical.org.
Mr. Tucker has been a member and staunch support of the Norfolk Historical Society for decades. One of his books, Norfolk Highlights 1584 - 1881, was commissioned and published by the Norfolk Historical Society in 1972 in preparation for Norfolk's Bicentennial celebrations. No longer in print, this collection of 60 essays has been republished on the Norfolk Historical Society's website.
George Holbert Tucker was born in Norfolk on September 14, 1909. After graduating from Maury High School in 1928, he became the Norfolk supervisor for the Federal Archives Project under the Works Progress Administration.
Tucker's first book, Abstracts from Norfolk City Marriage Bonds and Other Genealogical Data, was published in 1934 after considerable genealogical research in the archives of the Norfolk Corporation Court. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
In 1949, Tucker began writing carefully researched articles on various phases of local and Virginia history for The Virginian-Pilot. He became a regular reporter for The Pilot in 1956, bringing an invaluable resources to the newsroom with his knowledge of Virginia history. From 1959 until two years after his retirement in 1975, he wrote a popular weekly column called "Tidewater Landfalls." He published three books during this period: Tidewater Landfalls, a collection of his newspaper columns on local and Virginia history; Norfolk Highlights 1584 - 1881;
and More Tidewater Landfalls: Days Beyond Recall Recollected, a further collection of his newspaper columns.
Having had a long time interest in English novelist Jane Austen, Tucker stopped writing the "Landfalls" column in order to visit England and concentrate on a biography of Jane Austen. His first book on Austen, A Goodly Heritage: A History of Jane Austen's Family, was published in 1983, and his second, Jane Austen the Woman: Some Biographical Insights, was published in the United States and in England in 1994. Both books received flattering critical notices. Tucker recently gave the opening address at the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America, where he was publicly recognized as one of the top authorities on Jane Austen in this country.
Other books published by Tucker are Virginia Supernatural Tales: Ghosts, Witches and Eerie Doings (1977), Cavalier Saints and Sinners: Virginia History Through a Keyhole (1990), and Bedlam Without Bars: A Fanciful Dixie Peep Show (1991). He is currently working on his tenth book, to be called Offbeat Virginia Humor: Rich, Rare and Racy.
In 1985, Tucker was asked by The Virginian-Pilot to resume writing a Virginia history column. He still writes this column and has contributed over 750 columns to the paper
On his 87th birthday, Tucker was recognized by the Mayor of Norfolk for his contributions to the city and the region through his unique talent for informing the public of our history and heritage in an entertaining fashion. In April 1997, he was honored by Tom Moss, Speaker of the House of Delegates, who presented him with an Assembly resolution recognizing his career as a researcher, historian, and biographer. On May 9, 1998, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Old Dominion University for his historical and biographical research and writing.
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