Alden Aaroe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alden Peterson Aaroe (May 5, 1918 - July 7, 1993) was a broadcast journalist and famous announcer for WRVA, a radio station in Richmond, Virginia in the United States.
With a career spanning more than 40 years with the "50,000 watt Voice of Virginia", Alden Aaroe is best remembered for news reporting, his interaction with fictional character, Millard the Mallard, during morning rush hours in the 1970s, and founding the WRVA-Salvation Army Shoe fund.
The shoe fund, Aaroe's pet project, provides thousands of shoes annually for needy children, raising over $5.6 million in its 36 year history. The annual program has continued since his death.
In 1986, Alden Aaroe Day in Virginia was proclaimed by Governor Gerald Baliles.
After succumbing to cancer in 1993 following a long battle, he was interred in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
In 1994, the Senate and House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly passed a joint resolution "in honor of his contributions to the field of broadcasting and his lifetime service to the people of the Commonwealth."
A book, Alden Aaroe: Voice of the Morning (ISBN 0-87517-072-2), was written by Richmond-Times-Dispatch feature columnist Steve Clark and published in 1994.
A Richmond street, Alden Aaroe Way, is named for him. It is a cul-de-sac with a small park on Church Hill adjacent to the former WRVA studios overlooking the Shockoe Valley and Capitol Hill, site of the Virginia State Capitol. A scholarship for journalism students at Virginia Commonwealth University was established in his honor.
At the Library of Virginia in Richmond, sound recordings, and other WRVA artifacts are the subject of a major online exhibit. Perhaps the portion of the exhibit Alden Aaroe would have liked best is a pair of his shoes.
