Walter Cleveland Caudill (June 9, 1888 – January 18, 1963) was a Virginia physician and politician. As a member of the Virginia General Assembly, Caudill represented Pearisburg, Virginia and adjoining counties between 1936 and 1955, first as a delegate and then as a state Senator.
, then educated at the Elk Creek Training School in Elk Creek, Virginia. He attended Appalachian State Teacher's College in
Boone, North Carolina
Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters for the disaster and ...
. Upon graduation, he moved to
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...
.
Caudill practiced medicine in Pearisburg (the county seat of Giles County) as a physician and surgeon. He also served as the President of the Medical Society of Virginia and was active in his Baptist church.
Political career
In 1935, Giles and Bland County voters elected Caudill to represent them, part-time, as their delegate to the Virginia General Assembly. He served one term, having replaced Dr. Jasper N. Walker (1866-1938), who was chairman of Bland County's Democratic committee as well as that county's health secretary for thirty years. Caudill was replaced by Dr.
James J. Davidson
James J. Davidson (November 5, 1861 – January 2, 1897) was an American politician and businessman.
Biography
Born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania on November 5, 1861, Davidson moved with his family to Beaver County, Pennsylvania. In 1878, he ...
, who served on the Bland County board of supervisors for 16 years but only one term as a delegate.
In 1939, Caudill won election to state senate district 19, representing Bland, Giles, Pulaski and Wythe Counties. His predecessor, Anderson E. Shumate had served since 1928. Caudill likewise won re-election several times. Before his retirement after the 1955 session, Caudill had risen to speaker pro tempore and floor leader of the Senate. He used his political clout to secure construction of a hospital for Giles County, situated in Pearisburg.NRIS Pearisburg Historic District p.28 During his last legislative term, Caudill was a member of the
Gray Commission The Commission on Public Education, known as the VPEC or Gray Commission (after its chair, Virginia state senator Garland Gray), was a 32-member commission established by Governor of Virginia Thomas B. Stanley on August 23, 1954 to study the effects ...
that ultimately led to the Stanley Plan which embodied the
Massive Resistance
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...
to racial integration vowed by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd after the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in '' Brown v. Board of Education''. However, because Dr. Caudill retired in 1955, he did not participate in the escalation. Fellow Democrat D. Woodrow Bird was elected to succeed Caudill representing those counties in the Senate, and fellow Democrat Charles T. Moses of
Appomattox County
Appomattox County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is part of the Lynchburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is the town of Appomat ...
succeeded him as the Senate President Pro Tem during Massive Resistance.