The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek: Polegreen Church and the Prelude to Cold Harbor (Civil War Sesquicentennial)
Douglas Southall Freeman (1886-1953), Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and renowned editor of theRichmond (VA) News Leader, characterized his heroes with one word. For Robert E. Lee, his word was "duty." Admirers of Dr. Robert Bluford Jr. might consider choosing the word "tireless."Bob, a Richmond native, interrupted his studies for the minister at Hampton-Sydney College in May 1942 to volunteer for the U.S. Army Air Force. He served as a B-24 bomber pilot and squadron leader in the Eighth Air Force during World War II, then returned to Hampton-Sydney and was graduated in 1947 as valedictorian. He subsequently graduated, cum laude, from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond in 1950 and earned graduate degrees from the seminary in 1954 and 1957. In the 1950s, he also served as campus minister at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and in pastorates in North Carolina and South Carolina.He was active in the civil rights movement on campuses in the 1960s and in peaceful protests of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1971, Bob was a cofounder of the Fan Free Medical Clinic in Richmond. He served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood in Richmond. Over the last forty years, he has served as minister or associate at Presbyterian churches in Richmond and currently, at ninety-six, is still active as a pastor and preacher.During his ministry he served as a leader and volunteer in projects to preserve numerous historic sites in Virginia, including two--the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation in Hanover County and the Laurel Historic District in Henrico--that were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. He was director of the Douglas Southall Freeman Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Since 1990, he also has been active with the United Indians of Virginia's efforts to recover nearly two thousand skeletal remains of their ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute. He was elected to the United Indians' board of directors in 1995 and is the only non-Indian to be recognized as a board member.   Since 1989, he has devoted time and energy to the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation. Bob Bluford was recognized "for his determined preservation of the Polegreen meetinghouse site" as the Virginia recipient of the 2004 First Freedom Award bestowed by the Council for America's First Freedom."   In 2011, the Virginia Press Association named Bob "Virginian of the Year." In 2013, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the largest Civil War battlefield preservation association in America, named Bob the recipient f the Edwin C. Bearrs Lifetime Achievement Award.