PICTURE OF THE DAY

Horses and jockeys jump the second to last during the Countryside Alliance Handicap Steeple Chase race run at Fakenham Racecourse on February 18, 2011 in Fakenham, England. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images Europe)

GREAT MEADOW FOUNDER, GOLD CUP CHAMP ARTHUR "NICK" ARUNDEL DIES AT 83

 Arthur W. "Nick" Arundel, the founder of the Northern Virginia Times Community newspapers and the Great Meadow Foundation, died Feb. 8 at his home in The Plains. He was 83.

Arundel, a native Washingtonian, was a Harvard graduate and former United States Marine Corps combat officer in the Korean and Vietnam War. Arundel covered Washington, D.C. as a correspondent for CBS News and later The White House for United Press International. 

The founder of Arundel Communications (now ArCom) based near Dulles Airport, he originated the concept of All-news radio at Washington radio station WAVA in 1960.

In 1963, he bought the Loudoun Times Mirror, then the second oldest weekly newspaper in the country, and founded what became Times Community newspapers.

At its peak, Times Community owned 17 Washington-area newspapers with a combined circulation of 270,000.  

In 1982, Arundel bought 500 acres of Fauquier County land in a bankruptcy sale. The bucolic parcel eventually became Great Meadow, an events center, polo facility and steeplechase course that is home to the Virginia Gold Cup.

An avid horsemen, Arundel won the fall International Gold Cup in 1985 and the spring Virginia Gold Cup in 1986 with Sugar Bee.  In 2007 and 2009, Arundel won two more International Gold Cups with Seeyouattheevent.

To read Arundel’s obituary in the Loudoun Time Mirror, click here.

Jackie Onassis, Sugar Bee and Arundel