Dr. William (Bill) Weaver Jr. made a name for himself as a respected academician. However, ever since he retired in 1998 as head of the Department of Animal Science at Penn State and returned to his native Gloucester County, he has developed a second reputation as a tireless community volunteer.

Weaver’s list of community work is impressive. It includes having served as vice chair of the Gloucester Historical Society in Virginia, and membership on the Gloucester County Historical Committee, which has to approve any renovations in the Historic Districts, such as all around the Court Circle, changing signs, any outdoor projects, roofing, etc.

When asked if his group had to oversee the work when someone ran into the brick wall lining the court circle, he laughed and said no, that was not part of his job.

He has served on the Board of Directors of the Rosewell Foundation, and on the Edge Hill House Foundation to preserve and maintain this historic house. Weaver was chair of this foundation for 10 years and is now serves as treasurer for the group.

He also is part of the Gloucester Educational Foundation, the committee that is responsible for selecting Gloucester’s “Teacher of the Year.” He said this was a difficult but enjoyable job as there were so many well-qualified and dedicated teachers, and any one of them could have been chosen to represent the county. This committee also selects and funds mini-grants prepared by teachers and scholarships funded by the committee.

Some of his other activities have included chairing the county’s Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Committee, a five-year effort that included a number of events, and serving as president and a longtime member of the Gloucester Point Rotary Club.

Growing up in the county, he was a member of the first class to graduate from the old Gloucester High School in 1958, having gone through eighth through 12th grades there.

His story is one of schooling from Virginia Tech to Penn State where he earned his doctoral degree and would teach and conduct research at the college level. He said he probably would have followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a farmer, except for the dust created when harvesting and allergies that ensued.

His father, William Weaver Sr., was a well-known farmer in Gloucester. He and his wife Mary (Bill’s mother) owned approximately 1,000 acres, which included forest land, two large ponds, and approximately 300 acres of cropland. This property was known as Woodberry, a farm in the Clay Bank area of the county that bordered the York River.

The Weavers raised chickens to produce eggs for sale, ran a chick hatchery, had a small herd of beef cattle and row-cropped corn, soybeans and various small grains on the cropland.

Weaver’s current family includes his wife Madelyn and two daughters and three grandchildren, all grown. One daughter is now living in their home place on the river in Gloucester and the other lives in Rhode Island.

While at Virginia Tech, Weaver was in the Corps of Cadets and Band Company where they won the band competition at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Weaver remembered there was lots of snow the day before. He indicated cleanup crews cleared the parade route but certainly not the staging area. It was a memorable day for him.

He worked his way up at Virginia Tech to full professor, as he taught and conducted research and outreach programs with the poultry industry in the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia. His task was to conduct educational programs with the economically integrated poultry companies to bring the “college knowledge” from the universities to the poultry farmers.

“The practical side is so important,” he noted. Both Bill and Madelyn indicated that the marrying of college knowledge and research to industry was his greatest contribution in all his years of teaching and research.

In 1962, Weaver graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in Poultry Science from the College of Agricultural and Life Science. He was then commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Army and stationed at Fort Ord (now closed) in Monterey, California, as a training school officer and later as a commissary officer. After military service, Weaver returned to Virginia Tech, where he earned his master’s degree and then conducted educational outreach programs at Tech. Eventually, he was given an ultimatum by his department head to either go elsewhere to earn his doctorate or find another job if he wanted to remain at Tech.

It wound up being a good move for him, he said. After considering different schools, he chose Penn State where he earned his Ph.D. By this time, he had a wife and two children to support. After completing his doctorate, he returned again to Tech and some 25 years later returned to Penn State as the head of the same department in which he had received his doctorate. He said there were good times and good faculty there. He retired in 1998 from Penn State after eight years and returned to Gloucester.

The Weavers are members of Petsworth Baptist Church. He taught adult Sunday school and was Finance Committee Chair for a number of years, and has also served as a Deacon and Deacon Chair. When visiting with Bill and Madelyn, it became clear that their Christian faith is important to them and that they try to live it on a daily basis.

When asked what advice he might give to others and particularly young people just starting out, he emphasized, “Determine what you are interested in and good at, and then follow your passion. Be willing to further your education.”

He was very insistent that regardless of whether you are destined for a four-year college or going into the workforce, be willing to continue to learn. You will always need to upgrade your skills. He also stressed that Rappahannock Community College and Virginia’s community college system as a whole is a wonderful way for young people to gain an education, be it vocational or prepping for a four-year degree, and do it without the much higher price tag of a four-year institution.

Weaver mentioned the Career and Technical Education program at GHS. One of the goals of the program is to prepare students to go directly into the workforce, but he found that the contacts with businesses needed strengthening. He helped partner the GHS program with the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce to establish an internship program whereby students could work after school and in full-time summer jobs.

Dr. William Weaver is a knowledgeable, sociable, yet down-to-earth individual with an extraordinary memory. He is truly a delight to get to know. There is kindness in his remarks and his attitude, and a joyful smile will be on one’s face after talking with this highly intelligent, humble gentleman.