Four named to VCU Board of Visitors

By Anne Buckley

Gov. Terry McAuliffe has appointed two new members to the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors and reappointed two others.

Franklin “Frank” P. Hall, and Colette W. McEachin, both attorneys, will join VCU’s governing body on July 1. Reappointed to the board were Rector William M. Ginther, who will remain as rector, and Alexander B. McMurtrie Jr.

Hall is a principal with the firm Hall & Hall Family Law. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1975 to 2009, including a stint as House Democratic Leader. He also was a member of the ABC Commission. He earned his undergraduate degree from Lynchburg College and his M.B.A. and law degrees from American University. 

Hall has many years of government experience, working at one time with U.S. Senate Majority Whip Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and remaining on staff when Humphrey became vice president. He also worked in banking, first founding a successful savings and loan in the 1970s and then opening Commonwealth Bank in 1986. 

Hall serves on the board of directors of First Community Bank. He is a former member of the VCU Health System Board of Directors and provided leadership in establishing a foundation for success early in the health system’s infancy.  Hall also is a former president of the Richmond Jaycees, the Virginia Metro Jaycees and the Richmond Area Young Democrats. He is a former member of the executive committee of the Richmond Bar Association and a member of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.

McEachin earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and her law degree from the University of Virginia. She is a deputy commonwealth’s attorney for the City of Richmond.

McEachin is a leader among prosecutors across the state and has been tapped within her office to handle many high-profile cases. 

She is a member of the board of governors of the Virginia State Bar and is frequently called upon to teach continuing education courses for her colleagues.  

McEachin also has served as a guest lecturer at VCU’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and has served on honors panels for the criminal justice program.  

Ginther, who was named to the board in 2010, became rector last year and has been elected to serve another one-year term as rector this year. The retired corporate banker also serves on the VCU Health System Authority board of directors. 

Ginther worked at SunTrust Bank, formerly Crestar, for 37 years, managing several large projects and overseeing the technology team that designed the bank’s customer information system as well as the Internet development team.

He also launched a mentoring program for minority employees in 1996, leading the way for today’s diversity councils. Before retiring in 2007, he managed the successful consolidation of Citizens Bank of Maryland into Crestar.

McMurtrie, a Richmond native, is an attorney with McMurtrie, Grubbs and Associates. He has devoted more than 40 years to the legal profession, specializing in partnership, corporation, trusts and estates and trial work.

McMurtrie served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1971 to 1981, representing Chesterfield County. He has served on the State Board of Corrections and the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring.

McMurtrie earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where he serves on the board of visitors.