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Underwood, George, Drinko among prominent deaths in 2008
Death touched virtually every segment of the Tri-State community in 2008. Marshall University students, patients of numerous physicians and those who utilized the Comfort House by St. Mary's Medical Center, are just a few of the lives touched this year.
Here are some of the local deaths from 2008:
Public service
Former Gov. Cecil H. Underwood, a longtime resident of Huntington between his two terms as governor, died Nov. 24 in Charleston. He was 86.
Local and state officials -- whether former political opponents or allies -- hailed him for his work on behalf of the state's economy, better roads and senior citizens issues, among other things.
Underwood was the state's youngest governor when he was elected in 1956 at the age of 34. He became the state's oldest governor 40 years later when he won another term in 1996 at the age of 74.
"The fact that he came back to lead the state in his latter years when it would have been easier to sit back and enjoy retirement at his farm in Tyler County or at his condo in Charleston says he was the type of public servant who always wanted to give," said Huntington attorney David Tyson, who was chairman of the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee for most of Underwood's second term as governor.
The Underwoods hold a special place in Huntington. Between stays in the Governor's Mansion, the couple lived in Huntington for extended periods -- from 1961 to 1972 and from 1978 until his second term in 1996. They moved back to Huntington after leaving office, then returned to Charleston in 2001.
B.W. Ellis spent a lifetime serving the citizens of Huntington. On Jan. 14, Ellis died at his Highlawn neighborhood home. He was 85.
Ellis retired from the Huntington Fire Department in 1985 as a deputy chief. Throughout the years, he was also the department's chaplain and the city's fire marshal.
And Ellis touched the lives of many of the city's children when he would visit schools teaching fire safety, and when they saw him in parades and in the community costumed as "Sparky the Fire Dog."
After retirement from the fire service and losing a bid for city council in 1989, he was appointed to council in 1990 to fill a vacancy.
Ellis spent the next 14 years on Huntington City Council, stepping aside in 2004.
"His entire life was dedicated to the community," said Huntington Mayor David Felinton. "He loved serving his community and he loved people."
Ozell Eplin, 69, of Barboursville, died June 3, in St. Mary's Medical Center. He was owner of Eplin Paving Company and was a retired Cabell County Magistrate.
Alvie Qualls, 78, of Huntington, died June 10 at home. He was a Cabell County magistrate since the mid-1970s and a former justice of the peace.
Qualls had been charged with sexual harassment of his employees and being mentally incapable of performing his job.
He was temporarily suspended by the high court in March 2008. That move followed a Judicial Hearing Board's determination that Qualls sexually harassed co-workers and was incompetent to hold office.
At the time of his death, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals was to issue a decision to recommend he be forced to retire. The case was dropped within days of his death.
Medicine
Dr. Jeffrey George, 49, a cardiothoracic surgeon, spent the majority of his career in Huntington, but left for a position in Virginia nearly two years ago.
George and his daughter Hannah, 15, died in a car wreck Dec. 3 near Roanoke.
He is the namesake of the Jeffrey George Comfort House behind St. Mary's Medical Center, of which he was chairman and presented the vision of the house to the region. It opened in 2000.
George was also director of Cardiothoracic Surgery, chief of Surgery and chief of staff at St. Mary's Medical Center.
Dr. Jack Baur, 84, died Dec. 1. He was the first hematologist in Huntington, practicing at the C&O Hospital and later Huntington Internal Medicine Group. He was also former associate dean of the Marshall Medical School and later was vice president of Medical Affairs at Cabell Huntington Hospital, where he retired in 1993.
Dr. Herman L. Ballard, 81, co-founder of Huntington Chiropractic Clinic, died Dec. 1. He retired in 2002, after 53 years in practice. He was a two-term president of the West Virginia Chiropractic Society.
Marshall University
John D. Drinko, 86, one of Marshall University's greatest benefactors and most well known graduates, died Jan. 30 in Palm Springs, Calif.
The Marshall library is named for Drinko, but friends and colleagues say he was more than a just name on a building. He never did anything halfway. He appreciated hard work. He always remembered his roots. He never met a stranger.
From humble beginnings in St. Mary's, W.Va., Drinko entered Marshall College on an athletic scholarship, playing football and basketball for the famed Cam Henderson. When his mother put him on the bus for Huntington, he was wearing a flour-sack shirt.
By the time of his death, Drinko had earned degrees from Marshall in political science and history, and The Ohio State University Law School, became a driving force at Baker Hostetler law firm in Cleveland, Ohio, and contributed multiple millions of dollars to not just his alma mater, but hospitals, museums, civic foundations and child care centers, said Alan Gould, executive director of the Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture at Marshall University.
His gifts were not strictly to the university, but to agencies such as the Huntington Museum of Art, the Carter Woodson Foundation and Barnett Child Care Center. He also assisted those who needed help for one thing or another, personally sending people to The Cleveland Clinic -- which to no surprise, he was a contributor -- and paying for their medical treatments.
J.D. Folsom, 72, of Chesapeake, Ohio, died April 9 in the Emogene Dolin Jones Hospice House. He was a retired music professor and the founder of the Marshall University Jazz Festival.
Stan Sporny, 62, of Huntington, a professor of fine arts, was found dead Oct. 22 while on a hunting trip.
He was a Fulbright Scholar and his paintings are on display around the country, including at the Smithsonian.
Dr. Jose Ricard, 81, died July 5. He was the longtime team doctor for Marshall University who fled Cuba after fighting against Fidel Castro.
Ricard served as the team's physician since 1981 and was named team doctor emeritus in recent years. He is credited with starting Marshall's sports medicine program.
Before coming to the United States, Ricard worked as the Cuban Olympics team physician and the Cuban sports medicine director.
Business
Frank L. Gaddy, 85, of Huntington died Jan. 16 in St. Mary's Medical Center. A Virginia native, he was founder and CEO of Gaddy Engineering. Gaddy graduated from Virginia Tech and his master's thesis on the absolute strength of cubical blocks of coal and designed a steel roof bolt support system has been considered groundbreaking technology in mining engineering.
Frances Elizabeth Collinsworth died April 7 in the Emogene Dolin Jones Hospice House. She was co-founder of Collinsworth Interiors in Huntington, which she operated for more than 40 years.
Donna Johnson Dickess, 70, of Kitts Hill, Ohio, died Jan. 27 in St. Mary's Medical Center. She and her husband, C. Keith Dickess, were owners and operators of Dickess Christmas Tree Farm.
Doris Riley Higgins, 75, of Willow Wood, Ohio, died Jan. 22 in Community Hospice Care Center, Ashland. She was owner of Higgins Chevrolet in Ironton.
Less than a week later, on Jan. 28, her son, Walter Eugene Higgins, who was an owner with his mother, and manager of Higgins Chevrolet, died in Cabell Huntington Hospital.
Jack R. McCoy, 70, a Wayne County native, died Feb. 2 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
McCoy took his experience from a one-room school and became an entrepreneur in real estate and health care. He was active in the West Virginia Economic Development Authority; past president of Northern Community College; developer of the Interstate Cable Company in Follansbee, W.Va.; a member of the advisory committee to Gov. Jay Rockefeller; and board of directors member of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council.
He was also a member of Sen. Jay Rockefeller's Discover the Real West Virginia board, in which he participated in a trade mission to Japan and Taiwan and was instrumental in bringing Sino Swearingen jet manufacturer to the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Charles E. Chapman, president of Chapman's Mortuary in Huntington, died Oct. 12 in Emogene Dolin Jones Hospice House.
Chapman and his brother Elmer Chapman Jr., founded the local funeral home on Sept. 9, 1951. It is one of the largest single-facility, privately owned funeral homes in West Virginia.
Sandra Adkins Fouch, 59, of Chesapeake, Ohio, died Oct. 30 of cancer. She was owner of K-Lee Trucking Company in South Point, Ohio.
Charles A. "Chuck" Thomas, 46, of Ashland, Ky., died Jan. 28 at home. He was owner of Woody's Surfside Cafe in Huntington.
William R. "Bill" Ritter Jr., 75, died July 2. He was manager of The Hotel Frederick from 1960 to 1973, president of Frederick Holding Company, C.L. Ritter Lumber Company, Big Sandy Coal Company, Eagle Coal Company, Warfork Land Company and a member of the board of directors of Wayne County Land & Mineral Company.
Butch York, 58, of Huntington died Aug. 20 at home of natural causes. He was the owner of York's TV and Appliance in "beautiful downtown Guyandotte," as he proclaimed in his commercials.
After becoming well known locally by pitching his TV and appliance store for many years, York encountered legal problems after his business was destroyed in a fire in July 2003. York later faced criminal charges of arson, but was never convicted and was free on bond at the time of his death. York's criminal case was postponed several times.
Charles T. Sloan, 86, of Ona, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pa., died Nov. 30. In the 1960s, he purchased Bischoff Glass and operated it for more than a decade. Previously, Sloan was an engineer at Fostoria Glass.
Courts
Judge Robert Staker of Huntington, former U.S. District Court judge, died Nov. 30 in a local nursing care facility. Staker, 83, was appointed in 1979 as U.S. District Court judge of the Southern District of West Virginia by then-President Jimmy Carter.
He became prosecuting attorney for Mingo County and then circuit court judge there until 1979.
After his appointment by Carter, he became senior U.S. Circuit judge in 1995, and continued in that capacity until retirement in 2005.
Dan C. Robinson, 86, of Barboursville, died May 27 in St. Mary's Medical Center. He was an attorney in the Huntington area and served 15 years as Cabell Circuit Court judge.
John E. "Jack" Jenkins Jr., 83, a partner of the law firm Jenkins Fenstermaker in Huntington, died July 4. He practiced law for more than 50 years and made several appearances before the United States Supreme Court.
U.S. military
Spc. Jeremy Raymond Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky., was killed by a roadside bomb May 7 in Sabari District, Afghanistan.
Also killed was Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N.M.
They were members of the 4th Battalion 320th Field Artillery Regiment 4th Brigade Combat Team 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell, Ky., on active duty in Afghanistan.
Sports
Gerald Lee Weed, 69, of South Point, Ohio, died Jan. 27 in Cabell Huntington Hospital. He was a retired editor for ESPN.
Madison "Buzz" Nutter, 77, the Baltimore Colts center for Johnny Unitas on two NFL championship teams, died April 12 in La Plata, Md., of heart failure.
Nutter was born in Summersville, W.Va., but grew up in Huntington's West End and considered it his hometown.
Nutter was the first Virginia Tech player drafted by the NFL. The Washington Redskins took him in the 12th round of the 1953 draft and he didn't make the team. He went to the Colts the following year to begin a 12-season NFL career with Baltimore and Pittsburgh. He was an all-pro selection with the Steelers in 1962.
Nutter snapped to Unitas on the 1958 and 1959 NFL championship teams.
He was part of what became known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played" in 1958 when Baltimore beat the N.Y. Giants for the title on Alan Ameche's touchdown run in sudden death overtime.
Ironton native and three-time NFL Pro Bowl selection Coy Bacon also died this year. He passed away Dec. 23 at the age of 66. Bacon played with the Los Angeles Rams from 1968 to 1972. He was then traded to the Cincinnati Bengals, where he quickly established a reputation as one of the fiercest pass rushers in the NFL. He finished his pro football career playing four seasons with the Washington Redskins. He continued to reside in Ironton after his career and worked as a motivational speaker.
