Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV has done much to elevate the status of the school and Farmville since being named president in 2013, and he recently wrote a letter that helped illustrate this in a fresh way.

He composed an open letter to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in the effort to persuade Amazon to base its second headquarters in the state of Virginia. He noted this headquarters could employ as many as 50,000 people at average pay exceeding six figures.

The point of emphasis in Reveley’s letter was to highlight the quality of higher education in Virginia and why it makes the state the best choice for Amazon.

“For the workforce you will need to get you there, Virginia has the best assortment of public and private colleges in the country — in fact, on the planet,” he wrote.

Considering that he is leader of a school that is rising impressively in U.S. News & World Report college rankings and also that he successfully drew the lone 2016 U.S. Vice Presidential Debate to Longwood, Reveley has established himself as someone who deserves a hearing.

He did not seek to overemphasize Longwood in the letter, and he did not have to. The fact that he was the writer promoted it well.

Good character and effective leadership have a way of commending not only an individual but also the institutions and localities with which he or she is affiliated. Longwood and Farmville, already strong in their own right, are experiencing this commendation, and for that, we commend President Reveley.