VCU news

Rozanne Garrett Epps, a former member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors, died Sunday after a brief illness. She was 86.

Epps, an appointee of Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, served two terms on the VCU Board of Visitors beginning in 1986. She began her tenure at the university in 1965 when she joined the staff of the Evening College and Summer School at Richmond Professional Institute, the precursor to VCU. She served as assistant director, associate director and assistant dean before becoming director of Evening, Summer and Off-Campus Studies in 1980.

She was a founder and for many years a teacher of the university's Focus on Career Choice programs, originally Focus on Choice for Women, which has served as a bridge for many students, especially women, returning to the work force.

A Florida native, Epps received her bachelor’s degree in 1943 from Vassar College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and her master’s degree from Goddard College in 1974. Following graduation from Vassar, she worked for Naval Intelligence in the Pentagon until the conclusion of World War II, when she left the Navy to write a column for Pathfinder magazine. In 1946, she was accepted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law for the Class of 1949 as one of only three women admitted to that class. She declined the offer, however, and instead married Augustus Charles Epps of Richmond, to whom she was married for 58 years until his death in 2004.

Survivors include her three sons, Augustus Charles Epps Jr. and John Daniel Epps of Richmond, and George Garrett Epps of Washington, D.C.; two daughters-in-law, Ellen Elizabeth Spong and Patricia Kyle Epps of Richmond; two grandchildren, Daniel Spencer Epps of Charlottesville, and Margaret Butler Love Epps of Washington, D.C.; and a sister, Alice Garrett McClelland of Hobe Sound, Fla.

A funeral service is set for Nov. 19 at 11 a.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, followed by burial at Hollywood Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Rozanne Epps Scholarship Fund at Virginia Commonwealth University or the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.