Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16805, Leigh B. Middleditch, Jr. papers regarding the Citizens Committee for City County Cooperation (5 C's), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was a gift from David J. Toscano to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 23 January 2023. Toscano worked at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service from 2008 until his retirement in the late summer of 2021. Toscano served 14 years (2006-2020) in the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 57th District, which includes all of Charlottesville and many parts of Albemarle County. Toscano received the boxes from former Cooper Center Director John Thomas around 2016 and became the repository/holder of the Leigh Middleditch boxes.

Biographical / Historical

Leigh B. Middleditch graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1957, and Darden Business School in 1958. He practiced law at McGuire, Woods in Charlottesville, Virginia. From 1968 to 1972 he served as UVA legal adviser during integration, coeducation and Vietnam War protests.

Middleditch taught classes on Virginia procedures at the UVA Law School and was a tenured professor of law and business. He served as a Trustee for the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Chair of UVA's Health Services Foundation, Virginia Health Care Foundation, Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, and the ABA Board of Governors. He also served as a Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,Trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, President of the University of Virginia Alumni and Law Associations,and co-founded the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at UVA.

In 1980 he headed up the Citizens Committee for City County Cooperation to resolve disputes between the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County regarding several issues. The primary focus was shared revenue in which he prevented the city of Charlottesville from annexing Albemarle County.

Leigh Middleditch died on October 3, 2021, just days after his 92nd birthday and shortly after he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. He was remembered as a consensus-builder and connector who took advantage of his vast network to launch nonprofits and populate boards.

Source: Lindenfeld Hall, Sarah. "In Memoriam Leigh B. Middleditch, Jr. Civic Minded Alumnus Remembered for his service to UVA and Beyond." UVA Magazine. Winter 2021. Accessed 8/23/2023 https://uvamagazine.org/in_memoriam/listing/leigh_b_middleditch_jr

Content Description

This collection features correspondence, newspaper clippings mainly from the Daily Progress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Observer, notes, articles, pamphlets, memoranda and minutes, and land analyses compiled by Leigh B. Middleditch, Jr., a UVA alumnus,tenured professor, and civic leader, in his role as Chairman of the Citizens Committee for City County Cooperation, often referred to as the "5C's.

This committee encouraged constructive discourse between Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The bulk of the material dates to the 1980s. Topics include land use and urban development laws within Charlottesville and Albemarle County, the future of the Route 29 Bypass Corridor and land use in and surrounding Charlottesville, tax revenue sharing and annexation, Buck Mountain Reservoir, South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, and City/County Police departments and other local services.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Charlottesville (Va.) -- Politics and government
• Toscano, David J.