May/June 2005

Take Me To Your Leader

Mayor Meyera Oberndorf shepherds the city of Virginia Beach

by Michael Jon Khandelwal

On a warm winter day in late January, the guard for Virginia Beach Municipal Building #1, an older man who has worked for the city since its inception, points the way to the Mayor’s offices, saying with a smile, “She’s a good woman.”

Seems like the presiding opinion of Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf.

Oberndorf, 64, grew up across the harbor in Newport News. She began her career in public service on the Virginia Beach library board, then the city council in 1976. She soon rose to the position of vice-mayor, and on May 1, 1988, was sworn in as the first elected mayor of Virginia Beach and the first woman to hold that post.

A diminutive powerhouse, she exudes a friendly warmth that helps her be a consensus builder, which has served her well as council members have come and gone over the years. She talks excitedly about her husband of 43 years, Roger, and points to prominently displayed pictures of her grandchildren, Lila and Joey.

She’s been called the “mother of Virginia Beach”—although she didn’t bring it into existence, she has nurtured it for nearly 40 years.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

The Lake Gaston project, which made Virginia Beach a more self-sufficient city, and the new Town Center.

What would you most like to accomplish?

Continue to make Virginia Beach a compassionate city where we do outreach to one another as volunteers. I also am excited about Town Center because it has created a modern urbanism. I’m excited about our performing arts theater, too. A city without cultural roots is like living on the frontier.

If you could do anything else, what would it be?

I would be involved in volunteer projects up to my eyeballs. When I was just out of college, a group of women were having difficulty with the schools, and they asked me to help them. I called Mr. Sidney Kellam and Mr. Bob DeFord, who was chairman of the school board, and they brought along the two area councilmen, Mr. George Farrell and Mr. Al Bonny. When they were all at my home, I said, “Gentlemen, these women have a concern, and they’re ready to tell you about it.” Nobody said anything, so I became the women’s spokesperson. We discussed their problem and resolved it. Two weeks later, Mr. Bonny and Mr. Farrell came back to my home and said, “We would like to appoint you to the public library board.”

So, that led you to a career in government?

After serving 9-1/2 years as chairman of the library board, I found out how wonderful it is to work with volunteers and the extraordinary professionals in government. My husband says, “She got appointed to the most innocuous board and catapulted herself into elected office.”

If you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be?

For the rest of this story, you can order the May/June 2005 issue of Hampton Roads Magazine.