Bill Text: VA HR225 | 2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Celebrating the life of Paul O. Bennett.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-03-04 - Bill text as passed House (HR225ER) [HR225 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HR225-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, there are throughout the Commonwealth rare individuals whose contributions to their communities will endure for long years after they have passed on into the next life; and
WHEREAS, Paul O. Bennett was, for the village of Burkeville in Nottoway County, such an individual; and
WHEREAS, Paul O. Bennett, whose mortal life concluded at the age of 89 on January 26, 2024, was a son of Nottoway, the child of Crispen Stone and Mary Louise (née Crider) Bennett; and
WHEREAS, Paul O. Bennett, raised three children with his wife, Betty, supporting them as a professional truck driver and, more recently, as an agent with Ellington Realty of Blackstone, and "gave Burkeville his all" for the entirety of his adult years, as the local newspaper editor has observed; and
WHEREAS, Paul O. Bennett was for 63 years an active and devoted member of the Burkeville Volunteer Fire Department; and
WHEREAS, Paul O. Bennett was chief of the Burkeville Volunteer Fire Department for more than 30 years or nearly half of the time he was a volunteer fireman; and
WHEREAS, the civic commitments of Paul O. Bennett extended to the entirety of his community, for he served for over 44 years as an elected member of Burkeville Town Council; and
WHEREAS, as observed by the editor of The Crewe-Burkeville Journal, Paul O. Bennett "sought what was best for his town and its people, and, in doing so, won an enduring chapter in any worthy and definitive history of the Town of Burkeville"; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates hereby note with great sadness the loss of Paul O. Bennett of Burkeville, who touched countless lives through his remarkable life, labors, and legacy of devotion to family and community; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare copies of this resolution for presentation to the family of Paul O. Bennett, as an expression of sympathy with their bereavement, and for presentation, too, to the Burkeville Volunteer Fire Department, to honor the life of a volunteer fire department chief and town councilman whose memory will remain green in the hearts of his people unto the last generation.