Walter A. "Mac" McFarlane

For more than a decade, Walter A. "Mac" McFarlane has served with distinction as Virginia's Superintendent of Correctional Education. Since he joined the agency in 1994, Virginia's correctional education efforts have become recognized as among the best in the nation.

Superintendent McFarlane served for 21 years with the Attorney General's Office having served under seven Attorney Generals. To date, he has been the longest serving Deputy Attorney General. In 1990, he accepted a post with the Governor's Office. Governor Douglas Wilder appointed him to the post of Chief Counsel and Director of Policy for his Office. He continues to serve as a consulting attorney to the present Governor.

After graduating from the T.C. Williams School of Law in 1966, Mr. McFarlane began his career as a Captain in the United States Air Force, Judge Advocate General Corps serving at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, from April 1966 to April 1969. He left the Air Force to join the Virginia Office of the Attorney General ascending progressively from Special Counsel to Assistant Attorney General and then to Deputy Attorney General, a position he assumed in February 1973 and held until January 1990 when he was asked to serve Governor Wilder.

During his career, Mr. McFarlane has received many awards and honors. In 2001, he received recognition by the American Correctional Association (ACA) as "Best in the Business." In 2002, ACA members elected him to serve as a member of the Delegate Assembly in Correctional Education Services (Adult). In 2004, he was voted the Virginia Correctional Association’s president-elect. Most recently, he was elected to the 2006 ACA Board of Governors in the education category.

Since 1977, he has as served as an adjunct professor on the faculty of the University of Richmond School of Continuing Studies, teaching legal writing and litigation. He was appointed to the A.L. Philpott Distinguished Professor Chair at T.C. Williams School of Law for 2003.