Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia politician. He moved to Winchester Virginia from West Virginia in 1887 and became a wealthy apple grower in the Shenandoah Valley and published the Winchester Star newspaper. He represented Winchester in the Virginia House of Delegates, and served as that body's Speaker from 1908 until 1914. He was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia from 1914 until 1920. One of his sons, Richard, became famous as a naval aviator who led an expedition to the South Pole; another,
Richard E. Byrd Richard E. Byrd School was dedicated in 1931. On March 31, 1934, during a regularly scheduled broadcast, Admiral Byrd was awarded the CBS Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Radio. Byrd's short wave relay broadcasts, from his second Antarctic expedition, established a new chapter of communication history. Byrd was the sixth individual to receive this award. The Institute of Polar Studies at The Ohio State University officially changed its name to the Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC) on January 21, 1987, after it acquired Admiral Richard E. Byrd's expeditionary records, personal papers and other memorabilia in 1985 from the estate of