R.B. Anthony Sr. dies; was former Freeman principal

Richard Bryant Anthony Sr. was a volunteer firefighter in the 1960s.

Principal Richard Bryant Anthony Sr. used to say he was "gray and blue through and through." Douglas Freeman High School was his school, and the students, staff members and parents were his children, said his son, Richard Anthony Jr.

One night when Anthony Jr. was home from college, the alarm system at the school went off. The two set off to investigate in the family Jeep.

A police officer was already there; he got in the Jeep, too, and they drove quietly around the back of the school.

A man was leaving. He ran for the fence and tried to climb it.

Mr. Anthony rammed the fence with his Jeep, shaking the man off, and the officer arrested him on the spot, his son said.

Now Anthony Jr., who lives in Richmond, is a teacher, too. "The way he loved what he did inspired me," he said. "If there was anything happening at Freeman, he was there -- athletics, band, chorus . . . everything."

Mr. Anthony died Saturday at age 79. A funeral will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Immanuel Baptist Church, 3601 Monument Ave. Burial will be at Greenwood Memorial Gardens in Goochland County.

He was principal of Freeman from 1973 to 1986; before that, he had been an industrial-arts teacher there since 1958.

Mr. Anthony was born in Lillington, N.C., and grew up in Wilson, N.C. He earned a degree in industrial arts from East Carolina College (now East Carolina University) in Greenville, N.C., and began looking for a teaching position.

He got 26 job offers, his son said, and narrowed it down to two: Richmond, and a town in Florida he described as "a little town that was just a crossroads," Orlando. That became a family joke as Orlando turned into a major tourist destination.

In the 1960s, Mr. Anthony was a volunteer firefighter. On yearly family vacations at Nags Head, N.C., his three sons knew what it meant to be invited to "go for a ride on the beach." They were looking for cars stuck in the sand to pull out with the Jeep.

"That's the kind of person he was. He would stop at accidents to help out. His first-aid kit looked like the rescue squad had built it," his son said.

He and Jane Edwards Anthony, a former home-economics teacher, were married for 53 years.

Mr. Anthony was transferred from Freeman in 1986 to be administrator of a new vocational-educational foundation for Henrico County. The move was opposed by Freeman students, and petitions signed by several hundred were presented to the school superintendent. The transfer was made despite the protest.

Mr. Anthony worked for two years with vocational-education students who designed and built houses to sell, the first program of its kind in the Richmond area, according to then-School Superintendent William C. Bosher.

"His background as an industrial-arts teacher was very helpful. He knew so many people. He was able to get land" and organize many details of the projects, Anthony Jr. said.

Mr. Anthony was a polished woodworker, his son said, and built additions to his home. He and his wife traveled the world, visiting Normandy and other World War II battlefields. Mr. Anthony had been too young to volunteer for service and envied his older brother, who had been a military pilot.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include sons David Anthony of Richmond and Fred Anthony of Roanoke; a sister, Estelle Grant of Greensboro, N.C.; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.