Staff of Virginia Quarterly Rebel in Wake of Editor's Suicide

Aug. 30, 2010— -- The winter issue of the award winning Virginia Quarterly Review was abruptly canceled after staff members removed their names from the masthead while an investigation procedes into accusations that a top editor committed suicide as a result of workplace bullying.

"There will be no winter issue," Carol Wood, spokeswoman for the University of Virginia, where the journal is published, said in an email. "We felt it was important for all members of VQR to take some much-needed leave while the internal review is underway."

An internal investigation was launched last month after Kevin Morrissey, the review's 52-year-old managing editor, walked to the old coal tower near campus and shot himself in the head. Co-workers said Morrissey's death underscored the management turmoil at the high-profile journal.

Morrissey's sister, Maria Morrissey, and co-workers acknowledged that he long suffered from depression. But they insisted that he took his life only after the university failed to respond to repeated complaints about alleged bullying by his boss, Ted Genoways. Other employees, they said, also complained about being bullied by the journal's top editor. Genoways vehemently denied the bullying charges.

Two VQR staff members said they agreed to take paid leaves after learning that Genoways, who had been on a fellowship at the time of Morrissey's suicide, had stepped in last-minute to close the fall issue, which appears in early October. A third staffer, who took another job at the university, also took leave after Genoways took control of the fall issue in recent weeks. The staffers, however, removed their names from the magazine's masthead and website.

Genoways' lawyer, Lloyd Snook, confirmed that staff members requested that their names be removed from the masthead after his client stepped in to finish the fall issue. "At this point he's still listed as being the editor," Snook said.

Wood said the fall issue, which includes a page dedicated to Morrissey's memory, was sent to the printer last week.

"Finishing up the final issue was a team effort and staff did participate in the process," she said.

The winter edition of the magazine, however, will not be sent to the printers.

"He is back and the rest of us have left," one staff member, who asked not to be identified, said of Genoways. "We took our names off the masthead and we took our names off the website. We were outraged. We decided that's it. We're out of here."

The journal's former online editor, Waldo Jaquith, wrote on his blog Aug. 20: "I never could have forecast that the University would allow us to remain in this situation."

In the days before Morrissey committed suicide, at least two co-workers said they warned university officials about Morrissey's growing despair over alleged workplace bullying at the review.

Maria Morrissey said her brother's phone records showed that he placed at least 18 calls to university officials in the final two weeks of his life. The phone records, obtained by ABCNews.com, showed calls to the human resources department, the ombudsman, the faculty and employee assistance center, and the university president. Morrissey said she is consulting lawyers about a possible lawsuit against the university.