Williamsburg Community Trust Announces

First Grant from the Parke S. Rouse Jr. Memorial Fund

The Williamsburg Community Trust announces the first grant from the Parke S. Rouse Jr. Memorial Fund.  The grant will be awarded to the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg to provide travel expenses to a visiting researcher researching a first book or article on Virginia history.  $350 will be awarded each year for three years. 

Mr. Rouse was raised in Newport News and visited unrestored Williamsburg as a child in the years following WWI.  After service as a naval officer in WWII, he became director of publications for Colonial Williamsburg in 1951.  He later served as director of the Jamestown Foundation and of the Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission.

He wrote numerous magazine articles and dozen books, most of them dealing with the history or contemporary life of Virginia.  His weekly column in the Daily Press on arcane pieces of local and Virginia history emphasizing the character of the people and families involved amused a generation. 

The fund was established by contributions made in Mr. Rouse’s memory.  The fund is to be used to fund worthy recipients for purposes that are consistent with Mr. Rouse’s deep and abiding interest in Virginia history.