Virginia is the oldest continuously settled European colony in North America. It is also a state that continues to change through time and lead our country in public policy, culture, and business.
Senator Surovell was born in Washington, D.C. and brought home to his parents’ home in the Hollin Hall Community in Mt. Vernon in 1971. He attended Hollin Hall Elementary School until it closed in 1980. He graduated from Waynewood Elementary School, Stephen Foster Intermediate School and was a member of West Potomac High School’s first graduating class to have attended all four years in 1989.
Senator Surovell is also a 12th Generation Virginian descended from English, Scotch-Irish, Irish, and German ancestors who have lived in various parts of Virginia including Madison, Fauquier, Lancaster, Rappahanock, Richmond Counties, and the Germanna Colony in Spotslyvania County since at least 1643.
One of Senator Surovell’s great grandfathers served in 7th Virginia Infantry, Company G, Kemper’s Brigade of General Pickett’s Division and was a Pickett’s Charge survivor before being captured at Five Forks. Another grandfather surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse and walked home. Senator Surovell’s maternal grandparents were natives of Vinton, Virginia (near Roanoke) after growing up in Hardy, Virginia near Smith Mountain Lake in Franklin County.
Senator Surovell’s father’s parents came to Fairfax County in 1935 from Brooklyn, New York and living in a farmhouse on a dirt road near a railroad crossing in Dunn Loring, VA called Gallows Road. Their families had fled Jewish persecutions in Russia and Poland in the early 1900’s.
The Surovells were one of the original twenty families to start the Tauxemont Community in Mount Vernon area. That community was recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia as one of the first historic neighborhood districts in Fairfax County in 2005. They also helped to found the Tauxemont Preschool with other families which is the oldest preschool in the Mount Vernon Community and the second oldest in Fairfax County.