Greetings from the Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery!
The Friends group was formed in 2006 to help the City of Richmond maintain and improve the Cemetery. The group is made up of a governing Board, and a network of more than three hundred volunteers and supporters, who are dedicated to preserving, beautifying, and celebrating this historic place.
The Friends group has been involved in placing more than three hundred individual gravestones and interpretive markers, repairing dozens more fallen or broken gravestones, cleaning and improving the grounds, conducting historical research, and organizing regular tours and other public events — all to ensure that this historical gem remains an integral part of Richmond.
Jeffry Burden
Board President
Jeffry Burden lives in Richmond’s historic Church Hill community and is a retired attorney. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the University of Richmond School of Law. He has been a volunteer with the “Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery” group since shortly after its founding in 2006, and previously served as Board President from 2010 to 2016. He has four known relatives interred in the Cemetery.
Jeffry first moved to Richmond in 1985. Since then he has worked with the City of Richmond, the National Park Service, and other entities to preserve and interpret of numerous historic sites in Richmond and throughout Central Virginia. He is a frequent speaker to museums, historical organizations and hereditary groups, with a special focus on Civil War history.
Sharon Pajka
Board Member
Sharon Pajka, PhD, is a professor of English at Gallaudet University, with degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond. She joined the Friends board in 2023.
Sharon combines here academic pursuits with a deep interest in Shockoe Hill and other historic Virginia cemeteries. She is the author of Women Writers Buried in Virginia (2021), The Souls Close to Edgar Allan Poe (2023), and the forthcoming Haunted Virginia Cemeteries (2025). She received a 2024 Saturday “Visiter” Award for “Adaptations of E.A. Poe’s Life or Works“.
On the weekends, you can find her in one of various cemeteries giving history tours, or at home tending her garden in Hanover County.
John Summerville
Board Member
John Summerville, M.D. is a Michigan native and earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. After his residency at Stanford University, he moved to Virginia in 1987, where he worked as a surgical pathologist at Johnston-Willis Hospital and other sites in the region until his retirement in 2024.
Besides his passion for historic cemeteries, John and his wife Danna maintain interests in bicycling, antique cars and travelling. He joined the Friends board in 2025.