Mr. Vernon Thomas Lankford Jr., 74, passed away on Aug. 20, 2024, at his home in Alexandria. He was surrounded by his family.
The elder of two children born to Vernon Thomas Lankford and Maragret Holland Lankford, Tom came into the world on All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, 1949, in Nassawadox on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
From his beloved Eastern Shore, Tom soon moved to Chatham in southern Virginia, where his father had started teaching at Hargrave Military Academy. There, even at a young age, Tom’s enthusiasm for life was so great that his mother needed a child’s harness and leash to help direct his energy and curiosity. Her efforts proved only partially effective, and Tom would regularly return home from the day’s adventures covered in red Virginia clay.
When he was not digging in the mud, searching for crayfish, or playing “Kick the Can” with his friends, Tom’s spark turned to books, where he found heroes and dreamed of the world beyond Virginia’s foothills.
Tom was an Honor Roll student every year at Chatham Elementary School before attending Hargrave Military Academy. At the Academy, Tom won the Writers, American History, Latin, French, Spelling, Science, Math, and multiple Scholarship medals for the highest GPA. He served as class president his Junior and Senior years, as Virginia State Beta Club president, and in 1968 graduated valedictorian and as the highest-ranking officer, the battalion commander. He was a member of the Chatham Baptist Church, played varsity football as a starting linebacker, taught swimming, and won the “Outstanding Teenager of America” award in 1968.
After high school, Tom furthered his education and friendships at the University of Virginia, where he majored in English literature, served as a dormitory counselor for three years, and finished academically among the top five people in his class. He was also a member of the Raven Society, the Z Society, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma. Throughout his life, he was a voracious reader of history and fiction and able to communicate with and entertain most anyone in conversation.
His outsized heart, ardor for learning, and dedication to justice and fighting for those he loved led him to a career in the law. In 1975 he received a Juris Doctor from University of Virginia School of Law. There, he was one of 25 second-year law students selected from law schools across the country to receive a Department of Justice Fellowship in Criminal Law. After law school, Tom clerked for the Chief Justice of the Fourth Circuit, the Honorable Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. Following his clerkship, Tom was awarded an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he earned a Master of Laws and practiced and taught from 1977 to 1978. By age 29, Tom had already won an array of felony cases, including murder, embezzlement, and drug prosecutions.
After completing his Prettyman Fellowship, Tom was offered a position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., but due to a budget freeze, he could not be hired immediately. They helped arrange for him what was anticipated to be a temporary position with the boutique firm of Sharp, Randolph, and Green.
He loved the work and respected his colleagues so much that he decided to stay. He was promoted to partner within two years on his birthday in 1980, and on Aug. 29, 1983, his name was added to the letterhead when the firm was renamed Sharp, Green, and Lankford (later becoming Sharp and Lankford).
In 1999 Tom went on to start a new firm with his law partner of the last 25 years, Terry, which came to be named Lankford and Reed.
Over a career spanning more than four decades, Tom was one of the leading attorneys in Washington, D.C. Although much of his work was confidential and out of the spotlight, some attracted wide exposure. Of particular importance to Tom was his lifelong battle to obtain justice and compensation for the U.S. diplomats and other citizens kidnapped, tortured, and held as hostages in Iran in 1979. Everywhere he went, he carried a dog-eared copy of their contacts, ever mindful of the pain they endured that grounded his ongoing determination to pursue justice for them.
In addition to his legal practice, one of Tom’s passions was lacrosse, and he was forever grateful to have coached a team for four years at Fort Hunt that went on to win the Northern Virginia Youth Lacrosse League in 1999.
Joyful years of birding with his family and gardening with his grandmother Holland fostered his passion for the natural world. Later in life he worked to help stop the placement of a toxic plant in County Wicklow, Ireland, and loved spending time in the garden at his family’s home in Alexandria, especially when the peonies were in bloom.
Despite his many accomplishments, Tom’s parents were most proud of his “common touch” — his unfailing ability to light others’ lives. That was his defining characteristic. From small acts like remembering people and birthdays to grand acts like providing a room in his home and place at the dinner table to any friend in need, Tom’s spark and kindness touched so many. He could not bear to see others sad and always found a way to lift our spirits. His fierce devotion to those he loved knew no bounds. When his son, Taylor, fell through the floor of a building, without a moment’s hesitation Tom dove in after and caught him. Tom herniated a disc in his back, but Taylor was uninjured.
Throughout his life he performed equivalent acts of selflessness for countless others. A strong swimmer, Tom saved at least two drowning strangers at risk to his own life.
As a testament to the power of the kindness and positivity he lived, Tom has been remembered from Virginia to the other side of the world in Bhutan, where shortly after his passing, his friends lit butter lamps in the capital city of Thimphu in Tom’s memory. His smile and warm personality were simply the best, and he will be forever missed by those who loved him.
Tom is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Harriet; three children, Taylor, Cooper, and Hadley; his daughter-in-law, Kate; grandson, Carsley; and brother, Richard and his wife, Nicky.
Graveside services will be held Saturday, Sept. 7, at 2 p.m. at Franktown Cemetery in Franktown with Pastor Bob Talbott officiating. A celebration of his life will be held at his residence on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Lankford Fellowship at Hargrave Military Academy, or to NewSong Church in Vienna, https://www.ournewsong.org/
Family and friends may sign the guest book at www.hollandfuneralhome.net
Arrangements are by Holland Funeral Home in Nassawadox.
