VCU news

By Dina Weinstein

Bob Pryor is twice as old as many of his fellow undergraduates at Virginia Commonwealth University. With his impressive path to college – marked by U.S. Navy experience, support for fellow veterans and a passion for service – he has learned a few decades of lessons along the way.

Still, “it’s a constant source of anxiety, being a nontraditional college student,” said Pryor, 37. “There’s a number of challenges.”

He’s up to them, no doubt.

Pryor is completing his bachelor’s degree in political science in the College of Humanities and Sciences this year and will then move into an accelerated program for his master’s degree in public administration in the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Since starting at VCU in summer 2023, he has been balancing classwork, extracurricular activities, fatherhood to two young daughters, an internship with family resonance and a work-study position with military connections.

He views all of those responsibilities as part of his transition into a service-related career, where leadership and coordinating interdisciplinary teams will be crucial.

“I’ve got a broad career that I’m pursuing, and there’s a lot of meaning and purpose behind that,” Pryor said.

His arrival at VCU – and a sharpening of his focus – was actually spurred by an initial admissions rejection. So Pryor enrolled in 2022 at Reynolds Community College, with its guaranteed transfer program providing a different pathway to VCU. At Reynolds, he also had the opportunity to work at its Office of Military Services.

“That immediately scratched that itch of helping to serve veterans and their families,” he said. “I’d get veterans or their dependents calling up saying, ‘I want to use my VA benefits to go to your school.’ You help them apply, you navigate the process, you deal with any payment issues.”

That spirit carried over at VCU, where he serves as vice president of the Student Veterans Association. He also works in the district office of U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan through a Department of Veterans Affairs work-study program, assisting with casework, outreach and benefits assistance.

“I’m a resource with that veteran background. And there’s a part of that I really enjoy,” Pryor said, noting an immediate rapport with constituents – including how he, too, gets care at the VA medical center in Richmond.

“When I share that I’m a veteran, you can almost hear their shoulders drop on the other end of the line,” he said of the relief that constituents feel. For them, “it’s like, ‘Oh, I can drop that worry. There’s no longer a language barrier, and I can speak freely.’”

Pryor’s efforts dovetail with his academic and professional interest in political affairs and public administration. He reviews proposed legislation that touches on veterans issues, including homelessness, so that McClellan can consider sponsorship.

“I got to go up to D.C. and work in her office during the National Defense Authorization Act markup process because she’s a member of the House Armed Services Committee,” Pryor said. “That was a fantastic experience, getting to see that part of the legislative process.”

He also embraces the internship he secured with Dominion Energy, where his outreach to veterans and military students in college highlights work opportunities in the industry. He developed an email and print newsletter that reaches tens of thousands of GI Bill students.

“It is a really cool position,” said Pryor, whose father and grandfather were electric linemen. “The transition from military to civilian is difficult, and Dominion Energy is a very veteran-friendly company.”

A military fit at VCU

In a similar vein, VCU is designated as a Military Friendly School – it has earned a silver award for being in the top 20% of institutions, based on factors including retention, graduation and job placement. Additionally, VCU’s military-friendly approach includes trauma care training for military health care professionals; training educators at more than 150 universities to better serve military students; research to improve the lives of service members and veterans; and relationships with local businesses and Fortune 500 companies that lead to jobs and internships. VCU also covers more than $15 million in waivers tied to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, which serves families of veterans.

Pryor’s journey to VCU was marked by plenty of perseverance and commitment. He grew up in Pennsylvania and enrolled in college right after high school, but his heart wasn’t into his studies at the time. So at age 22, he enlisted in the Navy as an electronics technician, working on radio communications, radar and data systems.

“The Navy has a lot of really great technical training programs,” Pryor said. “Among all the branches, they’re probably the best when it comes to those mechanical, electrical and electronic skills, because when you’re on a ship in the middle of the ocean, nobody’s coming to fix your stuff when it breaks.”

He was stationed in Illinois, San Diego and ultimately Norfolk. For about four years, he worked on the USS Elrod, part of an older class of frigates.

“It turned out to be the best thing. I had a fantastic experience,” Pryor said. “The ships were so old that [they lacked] a lot of the higher-level infrastructure. Because the Navy knew they were going to phase them out and decommission them, the technical support just wasn’t there. … Because of that, it was a very scrappy crew. It created a tight bond between a lot of the sailors and officers on the ship.”

His first deployment on the Elrod included counternarcotics work in the Caribbean. “We got almost $1 billion in street-dollar value of cocaine and marijuana,” he said. “I had a tangible impact on a national priority, which was really cool.”

On a later deployment in the Mediterranean, the Elrod operated an aerial drone, conducting surveillance and other intelligence efforts.

Pryor left active-duty Navy service as a first-class petty officer, having worked with partner nations such as Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and elsewhere. He also had developed a deep appreciation of managing resources.

“It’s really important,” Pryor said. “Being on a warship in the middle of the ocean that can’t talk to command back home is kind of worthless. So, I took a lot of pride in my job, and I had to learn a lot about other equipment. I had to self-teach some of the other really important pieces of radar and the general system. I’ve always been really fascinated by systems.”

Back in Norfolk in 2012, Pryor met his future wife, Jeanne, who was a pediatric oncology nurse. They married, and Pryor served in the Navy Reserves as a chief petty officer after active duty as he considered how to use his technical and leadership skills in life’s next chapter.

In 2015, they moved to Richmond so Jeanne could pursue a master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner in adult mental health. Pryor started working for Lutron Electronics Co. Inc., an appliance, electrical and electronics manufacturing company with a manufacturing plant and warehouse in the area. During his seven years at Lutron, he served as a maintenance supervisor and warehousing, shipping and logistics leader at the fast-paced, build-to-order manufacturing facility.

“I really enjoyed learning about that type of system and process,” he said. “I went to the plant leadership and said we should re-lay out this $6 million warehouse that we just built a year ago because it’s not efficient. And they gave me a lot of leeway to do stuff like that.”

School as a springboard

In the early years of the COVID pandemic, missing his connection to service, Pryor reassessed his priorities. He recognized that returning to his college studies would be key, and he targeted completion of his degree through the GI Bill.

At VCU, his homeland security classes have been among his favorites, as the subject matter has intersected at times with his Naval experience. And “I’ve really enjoyed the public administration courses, learning more about how the business of government is run,” Pryor said, citing political science adjunct faculty member David Kerr, for his skill – and for being a fellow Navy vet as well as a mentor and advocate.

Pryor also credits VCU’s Military Student Services unit with supporting student veterans, whose academic journeys are often unique and marked by challenges.

For Pryor, part of what he called his “constant source of anxiety” is knowing he might compete with younger classmates as he explores a career in public administration, serving at the local, state or federal level.

“I’m enjoying my academic studies,” Pryor said. “But having had a couple of careers before going back to school, there’s a large part of me that’s like, I just want to knock this out and get to work!”