Tommy Bogger (B.A. '68)
Dr. Tommy Bogger is the keeper of the Norfolk State story. For more than 45 years, he served the University as a professor, university archivist and Dean of Library Services. Dr. Bogger established the NSU Archives in 1986, and in 1993, he was named Dean of Library Services and Special Collections. Thanks to the assistance of a major African Art dealer and the generosity of wealthy donors throughout the United States, he established the African Art Gallery in 2003, featuring over 300 museum-quality African art pieces, appraised at approximately $507,200.
Dr. Bogger was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Bowl by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy in 1995 for distinguished contributions to the Humanities in Virginia. He received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1983-84, and in 1997, his first book, Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia: The Darker Side of Freedom, was nominated by the Library of Virginia for the top literary award in nonfiction for 1997. It received Honorable Mention. Dr. Boggerco-authored A Pictorial History of Norfolk State University, 1935-2010: An Enduring Legacy. He had authored four books and co-authored five. The fifth co-authored book, I Too Am Norfolk: A History of African Americans in Norfolk, Virginia, will be released by the University of Virginia Press in the winter of 2026.
He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., an NSU Distinguished Alumnus, a NAFEO Distinguished Alumni Citation recipient and a life member of the NSU Alumni Association. He has served as a consultant for national, state, and local agencies and was also the first African-American selected to serve on the Review Board of the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission.