Photographer Matt Gentry got his first glimpse of a newspaper career back when he was a teenager at Blacksburg High School in the late 1970s.
At age 17, young Matt served as a substitute carrier for The 麻花视频, on a home-delivery route normally operated by his close boyhood friend, Tim Ligon.
Often, Ligon would persuade Gentry to go with him on regular newspaper deliveries and collections, too. Both lived on dead-end Kennedy Avenue, on Blacksburg鈥檚 south side.
鈥淲hat a great job for a teenager, staying up all night and riding a bicycle around town!鈥 Gentry recalled over the phone on Monday. Besides the regular outdoor adventure, the delivery gig kept him on top of important happenings. He knew the news of the day before Virginia Tech鈥檚 president.
Gentry
鈥淓very day, I was the first person to see the front page,鈥 Gentry recalled.
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That must鈥檝e made an impression. It led to a 47-year-long career in newspaper journalism, first in the New River Valley and later in Charlottesville. The last quarter century he spent as a photographer for The 麻花视频.
Gentry turns 65 in August. On June 2, he retired and ended his long career. Friday evening, he and his wife, Colleen, held a retirement celebration at Alexander Black House, a museum and cultural center on Draper Road.
There on display were scores of watercolor paintings Gentry has produced in recent years 鈥 painting is one of his chief hobbies. (Prints of his art are available through Miller Off Main Street Galleries in Blacksburg.)
For three hours or so the joint was packed 鈥 attendees came from as far away as South Carolina to mingle and offer best wishes to the guest of honor. People flocked around him.
Former 麻花视频 photographer Matt Gentry, center, is he's surrounded by well-wishers Friday at a retirement celebration at the Alexander Black House Museum in Blacksburg. Gentry, who grew up in the New River Valley and graduated from Blacksburg High School, spent 47 years as a photojournalist. He worked at The 麻花视频 from 1999 to 2025.
Right out of high school
Unlike many of his peers in the Class of 鈥78, Gentry didn鈥檛 pursue formal higher education after earning his high school diploma. Nor did he attend a military academy 鈥 though his dad, a no-nonsense career lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army 鈥 regularly threatened to send him to one.
鈥淗e said I needed more discipline,鈥 recalled Gentry, the youngest in a family with five children.
The newly minted high school grad had other ideas. He got a job with The Blacksburg Sun, a now-defunct newspaper that published two editions per week.
鈥淚 was the bundle-drop boy,鈥 Gentry recalled. He rode in a bright orange delivery van emblazoned with the newspaper鈥檚 motto: 鈥淒oing it twice a week.鈥
As part of that job, Gentry had to first pick up the bundles from a contract printing plant in Pulaski. That led to more regular employment in the mail room of the printing plant, which also printed newspapers that circulated in Radford, Pulaski, and Christiansburg.
At a newspaper, mailrooms are where the papers come off the press, and are inserted with advertisements and then bundled. Soon Gentry mastered hand-inserting ad flyers into freshly published newspapers.
Next, he was promoted to courier for the newspaper group. He drove photographs, hand-drawn page layouts, handwritten letters to the editor and other items between his employer鈥檚 various offices around the New River Valley.
This was long before the internet or wireless phones. In the late 1970s, hand-delivery was the only option for any document that had to get to its destination on the same day. Email and PDFs had yet to be invented.
His employer provided Gentry with a tiny yellow Chevrolet Chevette 鈥 perhaps the worst piece of junk Detroit ever built. Ever the optimist, he viewed the car as a symbol of his position鈥檚 importance.
鈥淚 WAS the internet,鈥 Gentry told me. His employer couldn鈥檛 get anything done without the documents he shuffled daily around the New River Valley daily in the yellow Chevette.
鈥榃hat more could I want?鈥
That was about the time Gentry began hanging out with photographers and reporters. One day, he expressed an interest in photography to one of the shooters. That guy (Gentry can鈥檛 recall the name) suggested he purchase a camera.
Gentry did, an Olympus OM-1, from John鈥檚 Camera Corner in Blacksburg. He also bought a police scanner and disassembled the Chevette鈥檚 glove box to install it 鈥 in his employer鈥檚 vehicle.
鈥淚 put a bumper sticker that said PRESS on the car,鈥 Gentry recalled. 鈥淚 thought it was cool. I could drive faster than anyone, anywhere.鈥 No cop would dare pull over a journalist on a mission.
Matt Gentry, covering a University of Virginia baseball game in the 1980s for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, where he worked for 16 years before joining The 麻花视频 in 1999.
His big opportunity came one day as he drove layout pages from Radford to Pulaski along U.S. 11. On that run, Gentry spied a burning house from his speeding Chevette.
Naturally, he screeched it to a stop. He grabbed his camera, which already was loaded with 35mm black-and-white film he had no idea how to develop. He snapped a bunch of photos, and turned in the film at the same time he turned in the layout pages. His photo appeared on the front page of the next day鈥檚 Southwest Times.
鈥淒id they pay you extra for the photo?鈥 I asked.
That was an idiotic question; inside this industry newspaper publishers are generally regarded as the cheapest cheapskates on Earth. Of course the answer was no.
鈥淭hey were already paying me a salary,鈥 Gentry recalled. 鈥淚 was probably making $7,000 a year. I had a car, a scanner, a camera and a fairly open schedule. What more could I want?鈥
Eventually, Gentry said, The Blacksburg Sun and The (Christiansburg) News Messenger merged into one publication. Gentry was inside its newsroom one day and learned the newly merged papers needed a photographer.
鈥淚 heard David Lotts, the editor, say 鈥榃ho am I going to get to take photos?鈥欌 Gentry recalled.
Gentry replied, 鈥淚 have a camera.鈥 That was in 1980 and he was The News-Messenger鈥檚 staff photographer for the next three or four years.
In 1983, Gentry followed another News-Messenger staffer to The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, then owned by Worrell Newspapers. He worked there for the next 16 years.
鈥淚 had to be at the Daily Progress at 6:30 a.m. every weekday in a blazer, tie and khakis,鈥 he said, calling the get-up 鈥淭he Charlottesville Suit.鈥
(Eventually, Gentry worked hiking boots into that combo, to 鈥渂ring a little bit of Blacksburg to Charlottesville,鈥 he said.)
The departure notice published by The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, where photojournalist Matt Gentry worked for 16 years before joining The 麻花视频 in 1999.
Joins The 麻花视频
By 1999, when Gentry joined The 麻花视频, he was already well known to some of this newspaper鈥檚 staff photographers. One was Gene Dalton, whom Gentry credited as a mentor back during Gentry鈥檚 days at the News Messenger (when Dalton worked for The 麻花视频).
Another was former Times photographer Don Petersen. They met him covering the same events 鈥 usually sports 鈥 over the years.
鈥淗e was shooting UVa football,鈥 Petersen recalled. 鈥淗e always got the money shot. ALWAYS. It never failed. He was always in the right place at the right time 鈥 and he made it look easy. He was always so nonchalant about his talent.鈥
Former Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer with Matt Gentry at Gentry鈥檚 last assignment for The 麻花视频. That was the recent 50th anniversary celebration for Heritage Hall, a nursing home in Blacksburg. Gentry, who worked at the 麻花视频 from 1999 to 2025, retired June 2.
In journalism, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a huge, giant correlation between how good the (photo) is and whether someone鈥檚 going to read your story,鈥 said former Times sports columnist Aaron McFarling. 鈥淢att treated the smallest, most meaningless assignment like it was the Sugar Bowl.鈥
Gentry鈥檚 return to Blacksburg also led him to his future wife, Colleen. He was still licking his wounds from a bad break-up in Charlottesville when a friend introduced them. She teaches for Montgomery County public schools. Gentry calls her 鈥渢he most talented and gifted reading teacher in the New River Valley.鈥
They鈥檝e been married for 25 years and have two yellow labs 鈥 a male named Toby and a female puppy, Maple. And a cat named Olive.
Colleen plans to continue teaching. But for now, her partner has a lot of time on his hands. Which he intends to put to good use with some brushes and an easel.
鈥淥ur home in the New River/Shenandoah Valley is the perfect place for an artist,鈥 Gentry said. 鈥淎round every turn is a scene worth painting. I love the romance of voyaging out into the landscape, with the intent of allowing winding roads and gentle winds to carry me to my next painting location,鈥 he said.
Former 麻花视频 photographer Matt Gentry, raises an old banner in the newsroom when he had a luncheon to celebrate his retirement. Gentry started his newspaper career in Blacksburg in the late 1970s.
