Colgate Darden's ancestors had lived in Southampton County for generations, Darden's Tavern had figured in Nat Turner's Revolt.
15 Facts About Colgate Darden
2.
Colgate Darden volunteered to serve in the French Army before the United States entered World War I and became an ambulance driver, although he returned in 1917 to recover and enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
3.
Colgate Darden was commissioned a lieutenant and became a fighter pilot during World War I Colgate Darden later attended the University of Virginia, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduated in 1922 before going on to Columbia Law School and then Oxford University.
4.
Colgate Darden became active in the local Democratic party and aligned with the Byrd Organization.
5.
In 1929, Colgate Darden won his first election, becoming one of Norfolk's four representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates.
6.
Colgate Darden won re-election and served alongside Daniel Coleman, Vivian L Page and Wilson W Vellines from 1930 to 1933, when Darden resigned because of his election to Congress.
7.
In 1932, Colgate Darden won election as a Democrat in an At-large election to select Virginia's US Representatives to the 73rd Congress.
8.
Colgate Darden supported loans to European allies as early as 1939, before the United States entered World War II.
9.
Colgate Darden eliminated the state debt and created a surplus which was allocated to vocational schools, colleges, hospitals and other public services.
10.
Governor Colgate Darden refused to overturn the firing of several black educators following the 1940 federal equal pay decision in Alston v School Board of Norfolk.
11.
Colgate Darden was elected president of the University of Virginia in 1947, despite public misgivings from some among the university faculty, who resented his lack of faculty experience, and some students who feared that he planned to abolish the fraternity system at the university.
12.
At Virginia, Colgate Darden was responsible for erection of the student union building, named Newcomb Hall for his predecessor John Lloyd Newcomb; the establishment of the Judiciary Committee ; the creation of the graduate school of business administration and significant improvements to faculty salaries.
13.
Colgate Darden died in 1981 at his home in Norfolk, Virginia.
14.
Colgate Darden was buried in the family plot with his parents.
15.
Colgate Darden is memorialized with a historic marker at the site of his birth.