A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.
Casually work the name Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier into a conversation, and you’re likely to get blank stares from all but the most intense history buffs.
But substitute his better-known aristocratic title — the Marquis de Lafayette — and many will know of whom you speak, even if they might not know the intricacies of his long, complex and decidedly eventful life.
