Virginia Terrell Lathrop (1900-1974) was born near Raleigh, North Carolina and graduated from the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG) in 1923. She worked as a journalist for the Raleigh News and Observer, the Asheville Citizen, the New York Post, and in the London and Paris offices of the New York Herald Tribune.
From 1937 to 1941 she headed the Woman’s College News Bureau. She served on the Board of Trustees of the Consolidated University of North Carolina from 1949 until her death, was appointed to its Executive Committee in 1953, and in 1972 to the initial Board of Governors which was to oversee operation of all 16 public institutions of higher education in North Carolina. She received the Alumni Service Award of UNC Greensboro in June 1965, and an honorary degree in 1966.
She and her husband Albert H. Lathrop had one son, George Terrell Lathrop. They lived in Asheville.