Unless one delved extensively into archival material within the Department of State Police, relatively little has been known about the individuals who headed the agency over the early years.

Other than noting that one superintendent was appointed to replace another and scattered photos, little is conveyed about their backgrounds, career paths within the agency, major events occurring during their tenures, and their careers following retirement if applicable.

The Superintendents has been created so that each person holding the office may be identified and remembered for the present but more particularly for posterity. The biographies will remain a work in progress as each is completed. From various archives, thirteen have been identified from 1930, when a state police unit existed within the Division of Motor Vehicles, through 2020.

These men have helped shape the Virginia State Police Department into one of the premier law enforcement agencies in the nation. T. K. Sexton was the first designated in 1930 and this designation has continued to the recently retired holder of the office, Gary T. Settle, who was sworn in as Superintendent on January 18, 2018.

In 1942 the state police unit became a separate department of state government with C. W. Woodson, Jr. continuing as Superintendent. He had first been appointed Superintendent in 1941.