2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 42
Celebrating the life of the Honorable Thomas Selby Ellis III.
Agreed to by the Senate, January 22, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 26, 2026
WHEREAS, the Honorable Thomas Selby Ellis III of Keswick, a respected attorney and longtime judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, died on July 30, 2025; and
WHEREAS, born in Bogotá, Colombia, Thomas “Tim” Ellis spent much of his youth living abroad with his family; he returned to the United States as a teenager and lived in several states before graduating from Greenwich High School in Connecticut; and
WHEREAS, Tim Ellis attended Princeton University on a scholarship from the United States Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps, then served as a naval aviator from 1961 to 1967; his squadron, the VF-74 “Be-Devilers” was the first to deploy with the iconic F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber; and
WHEREAS, after his honorable military service, Tim Ellis graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and was awarded a Knox Fellowship to study in England, where he earned a law diploma from Magdalen College, Oxford; and
WHEREAS, Tim Ellis began his legal career with the firm Hunton and Williams in Richmond; he was renowned as a gifted litigator in complex commercial cases and earned the nickname “Tazmanian Devil” for his unrelenting work ethic and dedication; and