Dr. Roy A. West, a decisive and outspoken man known for his strong opinions and who exercised power at City Hall as mayor while playing an influential role in public education in Richmond, has died.

A controversial figure as the city’s second African-American mayor and a longtime high school and middle school principal who sought to use education to change the lives of city children growing up in poverty as he did, Dr. West succumbed to complications from pneumonia Saturday, May 25, 2019, in Gloucester where he moved to be near his son. He was 89.

His life in public service and education will be celebrated 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 4, in Coburn Hall at his alma mater, Virginia Union University, according to Scott’s Funeral Home.

A wake will be held 6 to 7 pm. Monday, June 3, at Scott’s Funeral Home Chapel, 116 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in North Side, a few miles from the Washington Park community where Dr. West grew up and lived most of his life.

An outsized personality who ruled his schools with an iron fist, Dr. West made his biggest public splash in 1982 when he defeated three-term veteran City Councilwoman Willie J. Dell in the 3rd District. It was Dr. West’s first run for Richmond City Council.

At a time when the mayor was elected by the vote of council instead of by popular vote, Dr. West, then a middle school principal, followed up his victory with a quick jump to mayor — a huge and unexpected move for a freshman.

At the time, civil rights attorney and Councilman Henry L. Marsh III was considered first among council equals. He had become the city’s first African-American mayor after a black majority had been elected to City Council in 1977. Mayor Marsh’s election followed a contentious seven years of court battles over the previous white-majority council’s annexation of a part Chesterfield County in an effort to bring in more white voters and prevent a looming black political takeover.

With the council divided into nine districts in the aftermath of the court cases, Dr. West, who was new on the council, voted for himself as mayor and garnered the votes of the four white council members to land in the mayor’s position and eliminate the black majority that had overseen city government for five years.

The power shift disappointed many, including Bernice Travers, current president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, who remembers Dr. West’s feuds with and grudges involving other black leaders.

“There was a sense of cohesion on City Council and in the black community prior to Dr. West voting to appoint himself as mayor. He sided with the minority faction on council and with corporate leaders, thus dismantling the hope of progress for African-Americans,” she said.

Typical of Dr. West, his run for office was fueled, in large part, by his desire to get back at the School Board and then Superintendent Richard C. Hunter, who had demoted him in 1980 from principal of John Marshall High School to principal of Albert Hill Middle as the result of policy disagreements.

At the time, City Council appointed members of the School Board along with setting the school system’s budget. And Dr. West, rather than sulking, sought a post from which he could have some say in those matters. Dr. Hunter resigned from the school system soon after Dr. West became mayor.

Dr. West held the mayoral post for six of the 12 years he served on City Council. During his tenure as mayor, the city built and opened 6th Street Marketplace, a mall across Broad Street that was the biggest effort at the time to revitalize Downtown. The project ultimately failed.

Also during Dr. West’s tenure as mayor, the city finally funded construction of Boushall Middle School in South Side after 12 years of trying.

But neither Dr. West nor anyone on council could halt the city’s steady population decline as numerous white and African-American families left the city for the suburbs.

By the time Dr. West left the council in 1994 after his defeat by Viola O. Baskerville, a future member of the House of Delegates and future state secretary of administration, the city had hit bottom, with its murder rate soaring, its population shrinking and its outlook far different than the current of prosperity and growth in people and residential and commercial development.

He was honored by City Council after he left with the naming of a green space off Forest Lawn Drive in North Side as the Roy A. West Recreation Park.

In the years after he left office, Dr. West continued to serve the city. Council appointed him to represent Richmond on the boards of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.

A later successor to Dr. West in the 3rd District, Councilman Chris A. Hilbert knew him as an involved resident.

“I recall receiving emails that were sent in the wee hours of the morning letting me know his views on issues facing the council and on infrastructure issues within his beloved Washington Park neighborhood,” Mr. Hilbert stated.  

“You always knew where you stood with Dr. West. He kept us all on our toes. We will miss him but know that he left a legacy of a true public servant,” Mr. Hilbert wrote in an email to the Free Press.

Born in Richmond in 1930 during the Great Depression, Dr. West learned early that nothing would be handed to him and that education was one way he could rise from poverty. The son of a deaf woman who worked as a housekeeper, he grew up in a Washington Park home without indoor toilets.

He overcame stuttering and went on to graduate from Maggie L. Walker High School and began his career in education after graduating from VUU. He would later earn a master’s from New York University and a doctorate from George Washington University.

Dr. West initially taught business classes at Armstrong High School and was named the school’s Teacher of the Year in 1968. He also taught adult classes in the evenings.

A hard worker, he would go on to serve as principal of the adult evening school for seven years while also serving by day as director of school food services for the city school system.

He stopped working two jobs after being promoted to principal of John Marshall High School in 1976. He served there for four years, then another seven as principal of Albert Hill Middle. He later served two years as principal of Mosby Middle and then as a magnet school planner before retiring in 1991 after 31 years with RPS.

Dr. West was proud of his efforts to motivate students. As he once wrote, his efforts were recognized in the students’ “impressive academic achievements as measured by standardized tests and other assessment criteria.”

In his view, his success as a principal emanated from his ability to “energize all involved — students, teachers, parents and community — to accept and expect excellence in an orderly environment.”

He was a no nonsense leader, and students soon learned not to run afoul of him by breaking rules. He imposed discipline, asserting that learning could not take place “in a toxic environment,” and won attention when he had the front doors locked at Albert Hill Middle School as a security measure to keep out what he considered potentially disruptive individuals.

While not all agreed, he described himself as “a teacher-oriented leader and caring disciplinarian.”

He also taught business classes as an adjunct professor at VUU for 20 years.

He first became active in civic affairs in 1968 when he became president of the Washington Park Civic Association and got involved in the implementation of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s conservation plan to usher in improvements.

Dr. West won numerous awards for his service, ranging from the Martin Luther King Jr. Medal from George Washington University for distinguished service in the field of human rights to the Richmond Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award for his efforts to build cooperation and understanding between different groups of people.

In 1985, the Metro Richmond Chamber of Commerce named him the first recipient of the new Community Service Award. He also received the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Citizen of the Year Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Dr. West was a former president of the Metropolitan Economic Development Council and former member of the boards of Richmond Community Hospital and the Richmond Memorial Hospital Foundation.

He was a member of the Rotary Club of Richmond and The Forum Club and was a lifetime member and trustee of St. John Baptist Church in North Side.

Predeceased by his wife, Helen Hubbard West, who died in 1998, Dr. West is survived by his son, Mahlone West; daughter, Debra West; brother, Ira West; and two grandchildren.