GLENVILLE STATE COLLEGE | FALL 2020 PIONEER PROGRESS WelcomING President Manchin Dr. Mark Anthony Manchin joins Glenville State College as the 26th President Featuring Alumni The History Pioneer Athletics: WHAT’S Throughout the Behind GSC’s Iconic A Year in Review INSIDE: Decades Clock Tower PIONEER PROGRESS Fall 2020 Issue Pioneer Progress is produced by the Glenville State College Marketing and Public Relations INSIDE Department, GSC Foundation, and the GSC Office of Alumni Relations. FEATURES Special thanks to GSC’s Archives Office for access to historical CONTINUE THE information and photographs. 200 High Street Glenville, WV 26351 (304) 462-7361 | (866) 239-0285 www.glenville.edu 8 Flower Farming in West Virginia LEGACY ADMINISTRATION Help us to inspire a new generation of Pioneers who Dr. Mark A. Manchin will go on to make an impact on campus, in their President, Glenville State College communities, and around the world. Mrs. Rita Hedrick- Pioneering Through a Pandemic Helmick 12 Vice President for Administration Mr. David Hutchison Vice President for Advancement History of the Clock Tower Mr. Bert Jedamski ‘93 14 Chief Financial Officer Dr. Gary Morris Provost Mr. Jesse Skiles ‘87 Director of Athletics Alumni Through the Decades Dr. Jason Yeager 16 Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs EDITORIAL Dustin Crutchfield ‘09 Athletics Year-in-Review Director of Marketing and 32 Public Relations Kristen Cosner ‘17 REFER A STUDENT MORE Communications GSC Office of Admissions Coordinator, Photographer 200 High Street, Glenville, WV 26351 4 Greetings from the Manchins 31 Celebrating from Afar (800) 924-2010 Readers: Throughout this issue In the News Class Notes you may notice some items that [email protected] 6 36 date back as far as 2016. Those previous bits of information are 2020 Hall of Fame Inductees Pioneers Around the Globe being included due to the absence 11 43 of the Pioneer Progress in your mailbox since the fall of 2016. Day of Giving In Memoriam Of course you will also find news 24 44 related to current campus goings- on, and the class notes and stories 26 Honor Roll of Donors 51 President’s Circle of alumni and friends you’ve GLENVILLE.EDU/APPLY | PIONEER YOUR FUTURE grown to expect. Greetings from the Manchins! Greetings Pioneer Alumni and served Harrison County for six years proposal for master’s degree programs Friends! as their Superintendent. My wife Gigi in education, offered right here at and I have been married 48 years and GSC. On July 1, 2020, I began my tenure as together we have five children and Glenville State College’s twenty-sixth three grandchildren. We are investigating other new President. My wife Gigi and I are so programs to implement as well. The pleased to be here in Glenville and As I mentioned, the success of right mix of program offerings is a key I am very proud to be serving as the Glenville State College moving component in being able to recruit President of this fine institution. forward will be built upon the solid students. In-demand programs also foundations laid by those who have give students the ability to graduate Shortly after I learned that I would be come before us. My goal is to build into a field that will ensure them a the next President at Glenville State, on the progress we have made and successful future. I received several phone calls from continue to do great things at the people who shared with me that they Lighthouse on the Hill. As I near six months in this role at were GSC alumni. They were proud Glenville State, I find myself reflecting to call themselves Pioneers, and I Recruiting and retaining students is on the things we have already know that you are as well. Glenville an obvious goal. No college can be accomplished and the challenges State College is a great place and successful without students and we are faced here and around the globe. The that is truly reflected in all of you. working hard to seek out a motivated, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Who we are today has been shaped passionate, and diverse group of our campus in terms of course by our graduates, countless donors both traditional and non-traditional delivery and the ability to gather and and friends, and our past and present students who will hopefully someday hold events. It has also reminded faculty and staff. call themselves Pioneers. Keeping us of the importance of keeping students in college after they enroll our students, faculty, staff, and For those of you who may not know is another matter. I believe that, community safe amid the pandemic. me, allow me a moment to tell you as the old saying goes, “It takes a That focus will remain a top priority a bit about my past. I was born village” – that means establishing a until such time that we are all able to and raised in Farmington, West holistic approach to student advising, rid ourselves of the Coronavirus risk. Virginia. I attended public school course scheduling, campus life and in Marion County and eventually recreation, and more. It also means In closing, I want to express my earned a Doctorate of Educational ensuring that offices across campus are gratitude for what you have done in Administration degree from West involved in monitoring and assisting the past and I ask you to join us in Virginia University in 1986. Over the students. imagining the future. Gigi and I look years I have been a teacher, worked forward to meeting you just as soon as for RESA, served in the West Virginia As a lifelong educator myself, I am we are able. State Senate, was Executive Director acutely aware of the special history of the School Building Authority of this institution has in preparing future Be well and Go Pioneers! West Virginia, was Superintendent educators. My vision is to see teacher of Webster County Schools and education programs at Glenville State McDowell County Schools, and, just strengthened and expanded, building Mark A. Manchin prior to coming to Glenville State, on that storied history. That includes a President, Glenville State College Pictured: Gigi Manchin and Dr. Mark A. Manchin inside the President’s House. 4 Pioneer Progress Fall 2020 5 PHOTOGRAPHED BY: Kristen Cosner in the news Home Grown Program Expands Throughout W.Va. In 2019, Glenville State launched the Home Grown Ini- tiative, a scholarship program designed to address the growing teacher shortage in West Virginia. The program focuses on prospective teacher identification in the county schools partnered with scholarship support for candidate attendance at GSC, practical experiences, and mentor- ing during teacher preparation into the start of full-time teaching. The goal is for those students to return to their home counties to student teach and, if available, be able to Land Resources apply for open positions in their home district. The program has since expanded to all 55 counties in Students Benefit West Virginia. Qualified students are nominated by the county superintendent or their designee for a scholarship From WVDOF in a “high need” teaching area in their county. Trainings Department of Land Resources students who were enrolled in the Glenville State has established a food, clothing, and supplies pantry on Percussion Timber Harvesting course this se- campus as a resource for current students. The Pioneer Pantry and Career INTERRUPTION mester again had the opportunity Closet provide access to food, personal hygiene items, cleaning supplies, to take part in the West Virginia school supplies, and casual and business professional clothing to students The April 2020 performance of the Division of Forestry’s (WVDOF) who need it – all at no cost. Glenville State College Percussion Timber Felling and Chainsaw Ensemble should have marked the Safety Workshop on the College Both the Pioneer Pantry and Career Closet have benefited from generous 40th anniversary of the annual Farm. donations from the campus and community to keep the shelves stocked. show. The sets were built, the The GSC Foundation also has a designated fund to help support the Pioneer musicians were rehearsing, and The workshop, organized by Pantry; call (304) 462-6380 to make a donation. tickets were on sale. WVDOF Service Forester, Jesse King ‘14, was led by Johnny King However, the COVID-19 ‘13 (pictured above with student) pandemic halted all gatherings and Jack Spencer ‘95, both of the and live in-person concerts so the WVDOF. During the workshop, performance, under the direction students learned the importance of John McKinney ‘73, was of personal protective equipment, cancelled. timber harvesting laws and regula- tions, how to obtain a timber har- McKinney says that a 2021 vesting license in the State of West performance is being tentatively Virginia, and OSHA regulations. scheduled. More information will be provided as it is available. Japan Outreach Coordinator The students also worked to refine the skills that they had already Wraps Up Two Years At GSC learned in their Timber Harvest- ing course, as well as learning new skills along the way. The hands- For the past two years, Glenville In addition to his time spent on on training included practicing State College played host to an Out- campus with GSC students and notches, boring into a tree, spring Pioneer Nature Trail Opens reach Coordinator from the Japan staff, Yamaguchi also visited various pole removal, tree topping, and Outreach Initiative (JOI). community groups and schools for more. Thanks to a $10,000 grant obtained by the Gilmer County Farm Bureau activities and presentations. and the efforts of countless donors and volunteers, phase one of the Pioneer Masahiro “Masa” Yamaguchi served “We hope that the students will Nature Trail has been completed.