I will start back before graduation from Reynolds High School which is located in Transfer, in Mercer County PA. It was one mile from my house. Note: We had 10 school districts in Mercer County

During my senior year I started to think about what I was going to do after high school. I really didn’t have any definite plans but most people went to college. My sister graduated in 1965 and went to Slippery Rock State College and graduated from there in 1969 with a PE Degree, it was my senior year in high school.

I was not big on going to college but my parents and especially my mom wanted me to get a college education. The football coaches also encouraged me to go to college as well. The Lord blessed me with being a good athlete so going somewhere to college and playing sports on a scholarship was an option. Although I liked basketball the best being 6'3'' and 215 pounds it made sense to lean towards football.

I was a homeboy, as Leebo would say, and though I had traveled a lot I really didn’t want to go somewhere far away and stay. So I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to college nor did I have any idea what degree I should pick.

The football coaches thought that a degree in education would be a good way to go, as at the time there was a need for educators in the state. I had always spent a lot of time kids so I thought that would be a good pick. So I picked a degree in Elementary Education.

I had several football scholarship offers but they were too far away for me. One offer from Delmar College in Kansas was a appealing. I talked to them and received postcards from the Head Coach, the Captain of the football team and from the Head Cheerleader. Sounded like a nice situation but too far away.

Then there were offers from some of the state schools around the around our state but again I wasn’t really overly interested in playing football.

I then discovered that Edinboro State College located in Northwest PA near Lake Erie had an off campus branch in Farrell PA just like 12 miles away from my place so I decided to go there.

They also has basketball a team there. It was a bunch of local guys from different schools. We won the CCC Championship in the 1970-71 season.

I attended there for close to three years. I acquired 80 credit hours there and then commuted one semester to main campus in Edinboro PA which was 50 miles away.

I went to summer school to take my method classes and took a semester off just to make sure that that's what I wanted to do.

The following semester I did my student teaching in the Lakeview school district about 15 miles from where I lived. The first part was with second graders (that was a real educational experience in itself) and the second part was with six graders. 

I graduated college in the summer of 1974. I received a degree of Bachelor of Science in Education. This allowed me to teach Elementary School grades 1 through 6 and teach 7th and 8th grade social studies.

After graduation I applied at the local schools and there were no current job openings. With no local jobs available I got hired at the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company in Greenville (6 miles from home) where my dad worked.

During this whole process my mom kept encouraging me to keep looking.

I started work on a Monday and worked 5 days plus a half of day on Saturday. When I came home Saturday afternoon I went up to my bedroom and relaxed for a while. While laying down I pulled out my little New Testament that I carried in my back pocket and just flipped it opened and Eph. 4:1 caught my eye. It basically said keep doing what you were trained to do (that was the Williams translation).

So I thought, well here I am, I went to college and really hadn’t pursed a teaching job very hard. So I just said a simple prayer asking that God would supply a teaching job if he wanted me to teach.

Later in the afternoon my mom told me there was a phone call for me. It was a guy called, Mr. Mabe from Boone County, WV checking to see if I’d be interested in coming there to teach.

At first I figured it was someone my mom had talked into calling  me to get me back into looking for a teaching job.

He had an accent which told me he wasn’t from around home, so I listened. I explained to him that I was no Rhodes Scholar and to check things out and if he still was interested in having me come down to interview to call me back Monday.

I went to work Monday and he called back in the afternoon. So I made plans to meet him in Madison on Tuesday morning.

I wondered how in the world he got my name and phone number. I figured out later, that Edinboro and other colleges had lists of recent graduates that they had access to.

I drove down Tuesday morning and stopped at an Exxon gas station in Marmet to put my blue pin striped suit on that I bought at a factory outlet.

I arrived in Madison and met Mr. Mabe, who I discovered was the Elementary Superintendent, in Boone County. We talked for a while and he started reading off a list of openings. As he was reading through the list I heard him say 5th Grade at Whitesville and I said that sounds good. He kept on reading through the list without missing a beat.

As he finished Mr. Manual Arvon, who was the Secondary Superintendent walked through the office. As he passed by, Mr. Mabe asked him if he could find me a place to stay in Whitesville. Mr. Arvon asked why and Mr. Mabe told him I was going to be teaching 5th grade there.

I filled out and signed a contract and was ready to go to Whitesville. Mr. Arvon told me about a rooming house that was across from the theater and gave me directions to Whitesville.

I asked about the school and he told me it was a modern school and I would pass it on my way into town which was a short ways past the school. 

So I drove to Whitesville and got into town and hooked up with Gifford and his wife Nola Webb and rented a room. I asked where the school was and they told me it was back up a ways from where I just came.

It was at this point I realized that their definition of modern was not the same as mine, although it was a nice building.

At that time Boone County had a county meeting to start the year off and then the teachers had the rest of the week to spend in their rooms which was great especially for me being totally new.

I started my first day at Whiesville on Wednesday. A couple of the teachers, Dee McClung and Mrs. Anderson showed me around and helped me get acquainted with my room (203) and the general procedures. They also told me that funds were available and that I could order supplies from a company in Charleston which I think was called Latta’s or something like that.

I worked in my room until Friday and headed back home to get my things and headed back to Whitesville Sunday night.

Thus the Lord led me to Whitesville WV and the rest is history as they would say.