RICHMOND, VA – Greek-American Thomas P. Kapsidelis, a former editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame on March 26, along with seven other prominent media professionals, the Times-Dispatch reported.

Though the scheduled ceremony was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Marcus Messner, interim director and professor of the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a news release that “a smaller event to honor the 2020 inductees is under consideration for sometime in the fall,” the Times-Dispatch reported.

“The Robertson School has hosted the Hall of Fame since its inception in 1986 and has inducted 180 communications professionals since then,” the Times Dispatch reported, adding that “the Hall of Fame benefits a scholarship fund for Robertson School students.”

“The Hall of Fame recognizes communications professionals with exceptional careers in advertising, journalism, public relations, new media and other media fields who have made outstanding long-term contributions in the field of communications and were either born in Virginia or became distinctively identified with the state,” the Times-Dispatch reported.

“Kapsidelis, 63, is a veteran Virginia journalist who was an editor for 28 years at The Times-Dispatch before accepting a fellowship in 2016 at Virginia Humanities to work on a book that was published in 2019, After Virginia Tech: Guns, Safety, and Healing in the Era of Mass Shootings,” the Times-Dispatch reported, adding that “the book was published by the University of Virginia Press.”

Kapsidelis “was dispatched to Blacksburg to organize and oversee a team of reporters providing coverage for the coming days,” during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the Times-Dispatch reported.

“A native of Petersburg, Kapsidelis previously was the Richmond bureau manager for United Press International and a reporter with The State newspaper in Columbia, SC,” the Times-Dispatch reported, adding that Kapsidelis “is a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Richmond for the current academic year and formerly taught as an adjunct instructor at the Robertson School.”