served on Richmond City Council 1950 -1966
Vice-Mayor 1956-1958

Robert C. Throckmorton, a controversial figure in City Council politics dating to 1939 and former vice mayor of Richmond, died yesterday in a local hospital after a long illness. He was 85 and lived at 8108 Rosehill Road. Mr. Throckmorton was a certified public accountant and former proprietor of the Throckmorton and Booth wallpaper store on West Broad Street. Mr. Throckmorton was a prominent councilman during a city political career that spanned four decades. According to a 1967 newspaper story about him he was "the dissenter, the questioner, the examiner of budgets with a fine tooth comb." He was first elected to City Council in 1939 to fill the unexpired term of an alderman, and he stayed on the council until 1966, except for a two-year hiatus starting in 1948. That was when he finished 11th in a field of 29 running for the nine council seats in the first election under the council-manager form of government, a change he bitterly opposed at the time.

"Those were some right hot times," he told a reporter in 1982. "I just didn't agree with everything the rest of council said, just because they said it. If all they're going to do is rubber-stamp what each other says, we only need one member." From the start of his career on the council he was noted for keeping a sharp eye on city spending and for never hesitating to state his convictions. In a 1982 interview he said he was proud of being controversial as a councilman. He said in that interview he considered serving on the Richmond Tax Study Commission, which resulted in a new city tax code, the best thing he had done. He was proud also of his part in stopping the city from paying for the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.

Mr. Throckmorton was generally outside the power bloc on council, whoever it happened to be. Just before announcing he would seek re-election in 1966 -- a race he lost -- he alleged that the city had "a six-man council." Mr. Throckmorton, who said he had to quit school as a youngster, took some courses and passed the certified public accountant examination in 1952 before a college degree was required. At 77, he decided to get a high school equivalency degree because he was thinking about taking some college courses. "I just want to get as much education as I can," he said at the time. "There are still a lot of things I'd like to know, and the only way to learn is to go to school and study -- study it and understand it."

A native Richmonder, Mr. Throckmorton lived in Church Hill with his mother when he first served on the council and until the 1950s. Later in his councilmanic career he lived on North Boulevard. He moved to Henrico County in 1967, after leaving the council. In the 1966 council race, after filing for re-election at the last minute after supporters gathered names on petitions for him, he ran 12th in a field of 16 candidates. When he left council, his colleagues persented him with a framed resolution recognizing 25 years of public service. It cited "service that has demanded of him countless thousands of hours of effort and has resulted in his participation and sharing in decisions of great importance to the city of Richmond and its future, which is proof of an extremely high personal dedication." Mr. Throckmorton said in 1982 that he had had "enough of politics. Twenty-five years is enough."
Mr. Throckmorton is survived by his wife, Margaret C. Throckmorton
The Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 8, 1989