Gilbert J. Sullivan, who headed the University of Virginia’s Alumni Association for 35 years, was integral in developing what is now the Virginia Athletics Association, which provides scholarships for athletes. He oversaw major building expansion and fundraising for the school’s Jefferson Scholars program. Thinking of his accomplishments, Alexander G. Gilliam Jr., secretary to the university’s board of visitors, quoted a famous epitaph, “If you seek his monument, look around,“ and said, “It most certainly applies to Gilly and Alumni Hall.“ In 1992, a year before he retired, Mr. Sullivan received U.Va.‘s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for excellence of character and service to the university community.

C.B. “Sonny” Gill was a motivational speaker in the Richmond area for more than 30 years, speaking to small groups and large corporations. His messages, delivered with warmth and wit, were memorable. His offbeat sense of humor and ability to find joy in everyday things were part of the way he maintained relationships with countless people, said son Richard Gill of Lancaster County. For example, when his son was a teenager and said he planned to let his scraggly moustache and beard grow, Mr. Gill told him, “It’s OK. Just don’t wear it in the house.“

“I took the course simply to be doing it. It got to be the joy of my life.“ In 26 years of being Poppy the clown, Betsy Lyons Terry spread the joy around.

Conard B. Mattox Jr. was born in Gretna in rural Pittsylvania County. After five years as a U.S. Army Air Forces pilot in World War II, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Richmond, and his law degree there in 1951. He stayed on to teach economics in UR’s Evening College, was law librarian at T.C. Williams School of Law, and also practiced law.

Retired Lt. Gen. Willard W. Scott Jr., who was superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1981 to 1986, has died. He was 82. Gen. Scott suffered from a form of Parkinson’s disease and died Thursday at his home in Alexandria.

Looking back at the 10 Virginians who made a difference before they left us.

Clarence C. “Red” Roberts was a youth football association founder, coach, equipment manager, chief financial officer and groundskeeping crew for the Redskins. The Kanawha Redskins. “Our primary concern was that all of our kids get to play ball,“ Mr. Roberts told The Richmond News Leader in 1989, the league’s third year. “He told all the parents that the association was for the kids and that every child would get an equal opportunity to play,“ said his wife, Peggy Roberts, association co-founder and treasurer.

Carolyn Hodges Cromwell was co-founder of the Richmond chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. When Carolyn Hodges Cromwell died Dec. 12, there was no question that her home church, Manakin Episcopal in Midlothian, would be too small to accommodate everyone wanting to say goodbye. “We borrowed the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer,“ said the Rev. Michael Stone, pastor of Manakin Episcopal. “Even then, there was standing room in the back, standing room in the aisles. . . . We’re sure at least 400 people were there.“

It took a geology professor with a deeply curious mind to revive old-time music in Lexington and Rockbridge County. That professor, Odell S. McGuire, died Dec. 8 in Lexington after a series of health problems, said his friend, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader James Leva. He was 81. Dr. McGuire, who came to Washington and Lee University in 1962 as a buttoned-up conservative, morphed into a clawhammer banjo-playing, environmentally conscious raconteur during the 32 years that followed.