When Richmonder Martin Strother began to sing, his powerful basso profondo voice—without benefit of a microphone—easily commanded an auditorium or concert hall. “He was not a tall man, but he had a tall voice—a big, booming bass voice. He had a voice you would not forget,“ said soprano Lisa Edwards-Burr, assistant professor of music at Virginia Union University. She first worked with him at Dogwood Dell, when he portrayed her father in the Scott Joplin opera “Treemonisha.“

It’s deja vu for columnist Paul Woody as he goes back to the the University of Richmond to handicap the football team’s chances against William & Mary Saturday.

Elvatrice Belsches found the evidence on microfilm and Tuesday night presented an enlarged copy to the president of Virginia Union University. What she found, on Roll 15 Frame 0366 from National Archives records, was further documentation “to substantiate the incredible story” of how the university grew from “the nefarious slave trade to become a beacon of hope.“

Less than 24 hours after the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base, a gunman yesterday killed one and injured five at an Orlando, Fla., office building. News of such scenarios, though still jarring, has become all too familiar. “We periodically have these types of crimes in the United States. The unusual thing is to have two incidents so close together,“ said Dr. Joan L. Neff, a criminologist and associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Richmond.

Two Virginia universities have made Kiplinger’s rankings of the best values in private education. The University of Richmond ranked 14th on the Top 50 list of private universities, while Washington and Lee University was ranked seventh on a companion list of liberal arts colleges. The Kiplinger’s Personal Finance report said that despite plunging endowments, the nation’s independent schools increased financial aid by 9 percent while keeping tuition increases to an average of 4.3 percent, the lowest levels in four decades.

Saying he wants to keep a base in Richmond as he serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced yesterday that he will join the University of Richmond faculty when he leaves office in January. Kaine will teach one class per semester, beginning in the spring with an undergraduate course in leadership studies. In the fall, he will teach a law school class.

Over nearly 70 years, the baritone-to-bass radio voice of Harvey Lee Hudson Jr. woke Virginians up. It entertained them in their cars, sold them Cadillacs, talked to them from his home on Christmas morning while they opened gifts and, most recently, reminisced about the way things used to be on a show called “Harvey Hudson’s Passing Parade.“

The advertising world is in the midst of profound changes, and agencies will need to adjust the way they tell stories, the top executive at The Martin Agency said yesterday. John Adams, chairman and CEO of the Shockoe Slip ad shop, said the industry is moving away from an integrated marketing concept and toward a more unified approach.

The Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond is presenting “Genesis: A Conversation with R. Crumb and Françoise Mouly” on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage. The program is for mature audiences only. For the Richmond appearance - one of five nationwide - Crumb will participate in a conversation with Mouly, art editor for The New Yorker since 1993 and founder, publisher, designer and co-editor with her husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman, of the comics anthology RAW.

The Spiders will be led by preseason first-team selection Kevin Anderson. With five starters returning from the program’s first 20-win campaign since 2004, UR garnered four first-place votes. 

At the Virginia Military Institute, where three to six cadets share rooms “so small they put their bunks up during the day so they can get around,“ officials had expected roommates also would share the swine-flu virus. “But that’s not happening,“ said VMI spokesman Stewart MacInnis. “We’re really not sure of the pattern” of how the virus is spreading among cadets on the Lexington campus, he said.

Virginia Commonwealth University has been ranked No. 11 in a survey of the top 25 “best neighbor” universities. Among programs cited were the “40 Acts of Caring” project that was part of VCU’s 40th anniversary commemoration last year and its partnership with the Carver community. The rankings were announced last Monday in Philadelphia at the 15th annual conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California tied for the top position.

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded a $190,580 grant to work with Richmond groups to reduce poverty in the region. The Jessie Ball duPont Fund awarded the three-year grant to create the VCU-United Way Financial Stability Alliance. In addition to the United Way, the alliance includes The Community Foundation of central Virginia, the Greater Richmond Earned Income Tax Coalition and New Visions New Ventures.

Virginia Commonwealth University has named six finalists for dean of its Business School, including the interim dean and the retiring president of Disneyland Resort. The finalists, who will be on campus for interviews and meetings with students and faculty during the next month, are:

• David Urban, a VCU marketing professor who is serving as interim dean of the School of Business;

Eric Maynor and Brett Blizzard in the backcourt. David Robinson, Johnny Newman and George Evans in the frontcourt. While you can debate the best starting five on the Colonial Athletic Association’s Silver Anniversary men’s basketball team that was released yesterday, that group certainly stands out. Maynor, a point guard from Virginia Commonwealth University, was a two-time CAA player of the year and first-round NBA pick by the Utah Jazz this past summer. Blizzard, from UNC Wilmington, was a two-time player of the year and one of the league’s best long-range shooters.