racial desegregation. Media acquisitions In 1965, Batten acquired The Greensboro Daily News and The Greensboro Record, adding The Roanoke Times in 1969. Together with The Virginian-Pilot, these papers made up the core of the Landmark Publishing business. Under Landmark Publishing many other papers were started and acquired, including dailies, weeklies, community papers, and military papers across the southern and western parts of the United States. Birth of The Weather Channel When John Coleman, former WLS-TV Chicago chief meteorologist and Good Morning America forecaster, suggested creating a 24-hour cable weather station, the idea confirmed what Batten had learned at The Virginian-Pilot, that readers prioritized weather information as a primary reason for purchasing the daily paper. The Weather Channel debuted on May 2, 1982, after 10 months in development. Although initially criticized, The Weather Channel ultimately thrived and expanded to include its sister web site, Weather.com, which receives more than 300 million visits per month. In 2002, on its 20th anniversary, Batten co-authored The Weather Channel: The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon, recounting the creation of The Weather Channel. Philanthropy Batten became the first Rector of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, served on the boards of the College of William and Mary and Hollins University, and served as Vice Chairman of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. His gifts to schools and institutions include $32 million to the Harvard Business School, $60 million to the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, $32 million to Old Dominion University, and various scholarships, such as the Batten Scholarship at the Culver Academies. On April 12, 2007, Batten made a gift of $100 million to the University of Virginia, the largest gift in the University's history, to establish the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and in 2006, $2 million to Hollins University. Frank Batten made a $20 million gift to Virginia Wesleyan University to construct the Jane P. Batten Student Center in honor of his wife. Jane P. Batten joined the VWU Board of Trustees in 1981, served as chair of the board from 1995-1998, and was named trustee emerita in 2015. In 2017, Mrs. Batten made a donation to found the Batten Honors College of VWU (including a later $80.2 million endowment) and a 44,000-square-foot academic building to support the BHC mission of environmental stewardship. Additionally, Mrs. Batten made a lead gift in