The Roanoke Times | File 2007

Fred Hutchins, a Democrat who was 26 when he died, worked on the campaigns of Del. Onzlee Ware and U.S. Sen. Jim Webb.

Late Roanoke Valley political wunderkind Fred Hutchins used the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership's College Leaders program to accelerate his rise to prominence.

Now, Hutchins will be memorialized through a scholarship to the same program.

Hutchins, who volunteered for his first political campaign at age 12 and eventually rose to become one of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb's staff aides, was found dead in July alongside a stretch of U.S. 220 in Botetourt County. Police later determined that Hutchins, 26, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Hutchins graduated from the Sorensen program in 2002.

The scholarship is being established by a group of Sorensen Institute alumni from Southwest Virginia. The program brings college students from around the state together on the University of Virginia campus for a four-week session.

"It's a microcosm of people from different schools all over the state interested in political leadership," said Joyce Waugh, a Sorensen Institute graduate and president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. "It's about working across the aisle to get things done, understanding someone else's perspective and being able to work with them to accomplish what's best.

"We thought if anyone exemplifies those principles, it's Freddie," she said.

Hutchins' mother, Karen Wade, said the scholarship is a fitting tribute to her son.

"I've met a few people who have told me Freddie's touched their lives as far as leading them in a political direction," Wade said. "If it'll help somebody, I'm all for it."

Hutchins, influenced by his grandfather Guy Slusher -- a railroad union man, grew up as a die-hard Democrat. But Wade said the Sorensen Institute program helped him come away "with a better understanding of not being so one-sided" in terms of political parties.

"He was a true Democrat at heart, but going through that program he did start seeing there was good on both sides," Wade said. "When he was real young, he just thought if you weren't a Democrat you were just no good. I think he began to see there was good on both sides."

The scholarship idea came up during a late summer meeting of the Sorensen alumni. Beth Burgin, who graduated from the college leaders program two years after Hutchins, helped come up with the idea of paying tribute to him.

"I knew him in passing, but as a young person, to lose someone who had such a bright future in the Roanoke community is just tragic," Burgin said. "To be able to send someone to the college leaders program in his memory would be a great thing to do."

Tuition for the program is about $1,800. The scholarship will focus on students from Southwest Virginia.

Attendees are given the chance to network with one another, as well as political leaders at the local, state and even federal level.

"It's a neat experience that really teaches you about Virginia and the problems facing Virginia," Burgin said.

Hutchins attended while he was a student at Roanoke College. He graduated from the program only one year before managing state Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, to his first victory in 2003.

"I think it's a great way for us to remember Fred," Ware said of the scholarship. "It's worthy that he be remembered henceforth. I think it's a good way to do it. He always believed in politics.

"He and I believed there was a scientific way to run campaigns, and then there was what we called the old-fashioned way, which was knocking on doors. He knew both."

On the Net: www.sorenseninstitute.org