Roanoke,VI : Radford assistant communications director Paul Hershey dies 2 weeks after crash on June, Tuesday 27th 2017

Paul Hershey, an assistant athletic communications director at Radford University, died Tuesday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital as the result of injuries sustained in a car accident two weeks ago in Radford.

He was 40 years old.

“Just a tragedy,” Radford athletic director Robert Lineburg said. “He’s going to be really missed. … It’s been a hard day. It’s been a tough two weeks.”

The June 13 collision took place at the intersection of Rock Road and Lovely Mount Drive, Radford City police said the following day. Hershey was taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said.

Hershey had attempted to make a left-hand turn from Rock Road onto Lovely Mount Drive in his 2005 Toyota Sedan about 6 p.m. He failed to yield the right of way to a 2017 Nissan SUV traveling east on Rock Road, police said.

Hershey was on his way home from work when the accident happened, said his colleagues.

“He was turning into the road that goes to his apartment,” Radford assistant athletic director for communications Jordan Childress said. “He was probably 100 feet from his apartment.”

“I’ve driven that road where he had that accident … thousands and thousands of times,” Lineburg said.

The driver of the Nissan was taken to New River Valley Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, police have said.

Hershey had worked at Radford since August 2015, following a three-year stint at Coastal Carolina.

“Paul was very diligent,” Lineburg said. “He was a really, really good writer. Our student-athletes really enjoyed being around him, as did our coaches.”

Hershey was in charge of the news releases, media relations and other communications tasks for the Radford men’s basketball team.

“An all-around good guy,” Highlanders men’s basketball coach Mike Jones said. “A hard-working guy who was a team player that did whatever was asked of him. He would be very thorough with the job that he did. The quality of work that he put out was always top of the line.”

Hershey also handled media relations for the Radford softball, women’s soccer, women’s track and field and men’s and women’s cross country teams.

He kept colleagues laughing with plenty of one-liners, said Childress.

“It’s still tough to walk in the office down there and see his chair and his desk and he’s not sitting there working on something,” Childress said.



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Radford assistant communications director Paul Hershey dies 2 weeks after crash