Robertson School Faculty Reflect on Former Colleague

Staff and students at the VCU Robertson School of Media and Culture paid their respects to adjunct professor William “Bryan” DeVasher who passed away Oct 29. DeVasher died of cardiac arrest at 54-years-old.

A memorial service for DeVasher took place Wednesday at the King of Glory Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Virginia.

A handful of staff and students from the Robertson School attended including Robertson School director Dr. Hong Cheng and associate director Marcus Messner.

Dr. Cheng expressed his condolences over DeVasher’s death at an event Thursday featuring Reuters journalist Ronnie Green.

“We lost an excellent professor, a great colleague, and a dear friend,” Cheng said.

DeVasher taught copy editing at VCU and was formerly the managing editor at the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily. Before that he was a reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Messner had known DeVasher for over 10 years and said he brought a wealth of experience to his classroom.

“I think he had a very good connection with other people,” Messner said. “He brought a real-life experience to the classroom…student really valued that to have a professional teach what that professional was doing on a day to day basis in the newsroom.”