CHARLOTTE, N.C., CITY MANAGER WENDELL WHITE
NAMED DIRECTOR OF VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan. 22 -- O. Wendell White, city
manager of Charlotte, N.C., and former city manager of Hampton, Va.,
has been named director of the Virginia Institute of Government, a
University of Virginia program that assists local governments in
Virginia.
	White's appointment, effective March 18, was announced
Monday by John W. Garland, acting director of U.Va.'s Weldon Cooper
Center for Public Service.  The Virginia Institute of Government,
established in 1994, is based at the Cooper Center's Richmond office.
	White, nationally recognized for innovative leadership, has
been city manager of Charlotte since 1981.  During that time
Charlotte has become one of the region's most dynamic cities and was
recognized in 1989 by Business Month magazine as one of the 10 best
managed cities in the country.
	"Wendell White is the ideal person to lead the Virginia
Institute of Government in its mission of helping meet the
increasingly complex needs of governments throughout the state,"
Garland said. "With our governments squeezed to provide the best
possible services on leaner budgets, his demonstrated ability to
find creative ways to make government work, as well as his intimate
knowledge of Virginia government, will prove invaluable to the
state."
	U.Va. professor Robert E. Matson, a longtime
leadership-training specialist with the Cooper Center and the
Virginia Institute of Government, served as transition director of
the institute while a national search was conducted for its first
permanent director.
	White, 63, served as assistant city manager of Hampton from
1961 to 1975 and as city manager from 1975 to 1981.  From 1959 to
1961 he was the first town manager of Grundy in Southwest Virginia.
	A native of West Virginia, he holds a B.A. from Berea
College in Kentucky and a master's in public administration from
Syracuse University.  A longtime member of the International City
Managers Association and numerous government and management
organizations, he is a former president of the Virginia chapter of
the American Society for Public Administration.
	Among the chief aims of the Virginia Institute of Government
are providing a comprehensive training and technical assistance
program curriculum for local government officials, developing an
electronic data base of the most current information needed by
governments, and conducting applied research into problems of local
government.
###
January 22, 1996
	For additional information or interviews John Garland may be
reached at (804) 982-5541 and Wendell White may be reached at (704)
336-2241.