WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner released the following statement upon today’s news of the death of Raymond H. Boone, the founder, editor and publisher of the Richmond Free Press:

“Mr. Boone represented the very best of aggressive, community-based advocacy journalism. His career as a newspaperman and then as a professor of journalism would have been more than enough for most people, but instead Mr. Boone founded the Richmond Free Press in 1992 to provide a voice for the voiceless.

Both in print and in his personal relationships, Mr. Boone consistently held all of us accountable -- himself included. Ray Boone exemplified the old saying that newspapers are supposed to  ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’   

I offer my condolences and respects to his wife, Jean, and to Ray’s family, friends, employees and readers.”