2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 85
Commending the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III.
Agreed to by the Senate, February 12, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 16, 2026
WHEREAS, the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a highly admired legal educator and an esteemed jurist who has served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since 1984, received the prestigious Outstanding Virginian Award in 2026; and
WHEREAS, Harvie Wilkinson attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond and the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey; he continued his education at Yale University, where he was president of the Yale Political Union and a member of St. Anthony Hall before graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1967; and
WHEREAS, Harvie Wilkinson proudly served the Commonwealth and the nation as a company clerk in the United States Army Reserve in Charlottesville from 1968 through 1974; and
WHEREAS, in 1972, Harvie Wilkinson earned a law degree from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Virginia Law Review ; while attending law school, he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but was ultimately unsuccessful and returned to his legal education; and
WHEREAS, Harvie Wilkinson made history when he was appointed by Governor Linwood Holton as the first student to serve on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors; he was later awarded the Thomas Jefferson Medal, the highest outside award offered by the institution; and