Meet Bob "Scoops" Powell
Bob Powell and his wife, Elayne, are about to go on a new adventure. Their son and his family are active campers and recently acquired a new 40-foot travel trailer. Bob and Elayne now have their son’s previous 28 foot Airstream and have planned several adventures to Luray, Pigeon Ford, Charlottesville, and Bar Harbor, Maine, with their son and his family. Although this is a new mode of travel, Bob enjoys the outdoors and traveling.
Bob describes his home town, Franklin, as an ideal place to grow up. It was a close-knit community and he could walk to school and back home for lunch. His high school class had 52 people. His parents were very nurturing. His father, who had practiced law for about 10 years, was a “gentleman” farmer on land that had been in the family for generations.
While in undergraduate school at Washington & Lee, he participated in ROTC. His military career was very short lived. Between his Junior and Senior years, Bob went for two weeks of basic training at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The medical exam resulted in Bob being declared 4-F.
After graduating from W & L, Bob earned a law degree from W & L graduating cum laude. The beginning of his legal career was as a clerk for Judge Walter Hoffman and later for Judge Richard B. Kellam. He then went into private practice and specializes in estate planning and trusts. He is now “of counsel” with the Kaufman & Canoles law firm.
Early in his career, Bob was involved with the Jaycees becoming president of the club. His association with Rotary began in December 1981. Bob’s law firm had three Rotarians. Bill Worthington was in the Norfolk Club, Ed Oast was in the Portsmouth Club, and Dick Swope was in the Virginia Beach Club. When Bill Worthington died, Ed and Dick approached Al Ayres to be his sponsor in our club. He has been very active in the club serving as President (1994-1995), is a Paul Harris Fellow + 3, and a Charles Woodard Fellow. Additionally, he has perfect attendance for 34 years. Bob currently serves the Club as its Parliamentarian. He is involved with reading through the REACH program to children in shelters. For years, Bob headed the Rotations committee which is the background for the name “Scoops.”
Bob’s roommate at Washington & Lee was instrumental in him meeting Elayne who was good friends with his roommate’s bride. They finally met when Bob was clerking in Norfolk for the summer. Their first date was on June 17, 1966, and they married a year later on June 17, 1967. This year they will celebrate 50 years of marriage. Bob & Elayne have two children. Their son works for a company in northern Virginia which facilitates cloud computing. Their daughter works for a charitable organization that provides Head Start and pre-Head Start in the Franklin/Courtland area. They have three grandchildren, twin 8 year old boy and girl and an older sister.
Bob lives in Southampton County, Virginia, on property which has been in the family for generations. His grandfather cleared a portion of the land with an ax and a hoe. He has two farms. Until this year, both were active crop growing farms with peanuts, cotton, and soybeans. One of the farms is being converted to a solar farm which will provide electrical power to Dominion. The other farm will continue to grow crops.
Bob enjoys being on a tractor and was recently tilling two acres for a wildflower garden. Bob is active in the Feed A Bee program with the seeds being provided by Bayer CropScience. The wildflowers will help to promote honey bees. In addition to travel and being a gentleman farmer, Bob enjoys reading and playing golf. He continues to enjoy the practice of law and is the President of the Franklin-Southampton Law Association.