Former Roanoke state Sen. Granger Macfarlane has died. He was 95.
A Democrat, Macfarlane served two terms in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In Richmond, Macfarlane earned a reputation as an independent-minded legislator — some called him a “maverick” — who insisted on reading every bill, sometimes to the consternation of other senators when he found provisions they were hoping wouldn’t attract attention.
In the Roanoke Valley, he was best known for his criticism of a proposal to build the Explore Park, then envisioned as a state-funded Disney-like attraction that was intended to jumpstart a tourism industry in the Roanoke Valley. Macfarlane felt this was a waste of money that could have been better spent elsewhere and spent years questioning a proposal that had generally been warmly embraced by other Roanoke Valley politicians.
Macfarlane’s close attention to detail showed itself when there was a debate over who should make the appointments to the state board that would govern the project. One day, Macfarlane surprised fellow legislators when he showed up at a committee meeting and announced he was withdrawing his bill on the board’s appointment. He then revealed the reason why: A few days before, the legislature had passed — with no controversy and apparently not much reading — a seemingly routine revision to state laws approved by the Code Commission, a panel that acts as a kind of legal copy editor to clean up the often hastily written language in new state laws. As part of that revision, the Code Commission had proposed changing the board’s appointment method to be consistent with other state boards. Only Macfarlane had noticed that this action rendered the local controversy moot — and did exactly what he’d been proposing.
Explore never turned into the Disney-like project it was intended to be; today it’s an “adventure park” focused on outdoor activities, and a state law that goes into effect this week turns the property over to Roanoke County.
Macfarlane was born in Washington, D.C., attended Duke University and served in the Korean War. He eventually settled in the Roanoke Valley, where he owned and operated hotels. Macfarlane saw himself as a “Kennedy Democrat.” He ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates in 1971 but was more successful when he challenged Republican incumbent Ray Garland for a state Senate seat in 1983. He won that race with 52.6% of the vote, then was reelected in 1987 with 63.3% of the vote.
At the time, Democrats held an overwhelming majority in the General Assembly. In Macfarlane’s first term, Democrats held 32 seats in the state Senate, Republicans just eight. The biggest fights were often not between the two parties but between two factions of Democrats, a more establishment-oriented faction anchored in the eastern part of the state and a loose coalition of more populist senators from the west who on more than one occasion found themselves allied with Black legislators from the east who also felt locked out of power. Macfarlane fit comfortably into that latter group. As such, he often found himself allied with another independent-minded senator who clashed with the establishment: Richmond state Sen. Douglas Wilder. Macfarlane was an early and enthusiastic champion of Wilder’s statewide campaigns, which eventually made him the nation’s first Black elected governor.
By 1991, redistricting had added more of Republican-voting Roanoke County to a district that had been dominated by Democratic-voting Roanoke. The year 1991 was also a strong Republican year statewide as political realignment began to take hold; Macfarlane was one of eight Democratic state senators to lose seats that fall as Republicans made stunning gains.
Macfarlane never lost his enthusiasm for politics, though. Over the years, he served on multiple boards and commissions, including the Virginia Port Authority, the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission and the Virginia Western Community College Educational Foundation. Twice the Virginia Community College System awarded him its Chancellor’s Award for Leadership in Philanthropy. The 2017 award was a joint award to Macfarlane and his wife, Anne, a well-known artist. She died earlier this year. At the time, Virginia Western president Robert Sandel called Macfarlane “a class act and a wonderful ambassador for Virginia Western.”
Many of the legislators whom Macfarlane served with have since died, but he remained in touch with the generation that followed. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, a fellow Democrat, recalled that after his loss in the 2009 gubernatorial race, Macfarlane made a point to drive to Hot Springs to “take me to lunch … just to encourage me.”
His obituary on Legacy.com said that Macfarlane “was known not only for running a successful business, but for his willingness to quietly help and house those in crisis — particularly families displaced by fire.”
Macfarlane died June 23, but many political figures weren’t aware of his passing until former Roanoke Free Press publisher Valerie Garner posted about it on Facebook on Sunday. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke.