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18 Section I Sunday, September 30, 2012
Nash... Continued from 13 interview, Nash said that he kept in touch with his hometown through the alumni publication from Bluefield College and from national weather stories about the on-going Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce weather-related promotion of serving free lemonade on days when the local temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Nash was a rising freshman in Beaver High School in the fall of 1941 when Bluefield first served lemonade, but the
BSC... Continued from 12 and proud of who they were. Like any African American child of the times, discrimination due to race was a constant, but she also saw examples of greatness in black people who overcame the prevailing attitudes of the time, and excelled in spite of the barriers they may have encountered. In modern terms, Garrison would have been considered a “non-traditional student,” but she had already learned a lot about life by growing up in an isolated and segregated coal mining community. She worked, taught, studied at Ohio University and West Virginia State College, before graduating from BSC. She was 49 years old when she received her undergraduate degree. “The class of ‘39 can boast of members outstanding in all of the extra-curricula activities on
Shott... Continued from 10 loss caused the state’s former 4th and 5th congressional districts to merge. In 1942, Hugh I. Shott Sr., won an election to a short term caused by the resignation of popular U.S. Senator Matthew M. Neely, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat to run for governor. While he won the short term special election, he served less than two months in office, losing to U.S. Senator W. Chapman Revercomb, the last Republican from West Virginia to be elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate.
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the coal would be mined from Kentucky. So, global warming, carbon dioxide, etc. Well, coal from Appalachia, burned in China, will introduce EXACTLY the same quantum of carbon dioxide as coal mined nearby in China.” Nash, now 84, lives with his wife, Alicia, in their home in Princeton Junction, N.J. He maintains an office at Princeton University where he continues working. He served as the keynote speaker at the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce annual dinner on May 31, 2002. — Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
chamber was forced to suspend the promotion from 1942 through 1945, due to sugar rationing during World War II. During his junior and senior years in high school, Nash completed his first 18 credit
hours of college education at Bluefield College. Nash graduated from BHS in 1945, and went to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he earned both his undergraduate
degree and masters degree in mathematics before going to Princeton where his doctoral theses on game theory that includes the “Nash Equilibrium,” provided insight and clarity into zero-sum
games. The Nash Equilibrium provides a mathematical rationale that is universally applicable to businesses when they are competing for entities of previously unknown value. “What I see as a great value in economics-oriented government management is PATIENCE,” Nash wrote in his email response. “There will (of course) always be calls for ‘Stimulus now!!’ so, politically, ideal patience may be impossible. “I just read about a huge order from China, over a few years, for Appalachian coal,” Nash wrote. “It was very big, but, strictly speaking, I think
campus,” according to the “History” of the class included in “The Bluefieldian.” “We have had those who have made names for themselves in sports, music, forensics, writing, activities off the campus and every phase of collegiate life. Although the class membership has dwindled considerably, we still try to stick to our motto which is: ‘Forward Ho;’ although, at times, circumstances have tempted us otherwise,” according to the class history. “We feel that we could not make Mother Bluefield proud of her sons and daughters unless we tried to live our four years here with only her interest in our minds. Knowing that if we help her, we would be helped also.” Garrison was married at the time, and was a soror in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Other than that, she didn’t appear to be active in any other college activities. Still, she was aware that black students —
like their white peers — needed role models to aspire to become. Although the number of McDowell County high school students still living who attended the all-black schools in the county from the 1930s and early 1940s is becoming few in number, students including Sam Johnson who graduated from Gary District High School in 1941, recalled that the great Olympian, Jesse Owens, visited the school as well as Arctic explorer, Matthew Henson who were part of the “Black Artists’ Series,” that Garrison organized. Owens, the track & field great from Ohio State University, showed Adolph Hitler that the so-called “Master Race,” had a little work to do in order to best him. Owens received an incredible four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, but found many doors remained closed to him when he returned home. Still, he toured and carried an encouraging message to stu-
dents. Henson was with Admiral Robert Peary on his well-publicized trip to the North Pole in 1909. Although Henson tromped across the site of the pole in advance of its formal discovery, it was Peary whose name appears in the histories of the incredible feat. In 1912, when Henson was searching for a way to earn something for his troubles, he published the book, “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole,” and traveled around, speaking to all who would listen. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented Henson a silver medal recognizing his accomplishment in 1944. He died in 1955. After Garrison’s class graduated from BSC, Dodd took a leave of absence from BSC to participate in an advanced art program at Yale University, where he stayed from the fall of 1939 until 1942 — a period of time when he received numerous awards for his artistry. But
like many Americans, 1942 was a defining moment. Dodd was drafted into the U.S. Army, was sent to the South Pacific, and while there, contracted a disease that led to his honorable discharge from the military in 1945. Following a period of convalescence, he returned to Bluefield State, taught classes but collapsed and died on Nov. 30, 1946 after returning home from school. Dr. John A Cuthbert included one of Dodd’s works in his “Early Art and Artists of West Virginia” and the Parkersburg Art Center hosted a display of several of his works in 1990. While she was a teacher first, Garrison was also a prominent civil rights activist, although much of what she accomplished might have remained undiscovered if it were not for an oral history she recorded at Marshall University in 1968, that was archived with little fanfare until Lynda Ann Ewen
happened upon the oral history and worked with retired MU History Professor, Ancella R. Bickley to produce the book titled, “Memphis Tennessee Garrison — The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman.” Garrison started the Parent Teachers Association at the school where she taught and organized the first NAACP Branches in southern West Virginia. The annual State NAACP luncheon is named in Garrison’s honor. She became vice president of the NAACP in 1963, and remained in that position until 1966. She was a personal friend of James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. DuBois, Jackie Robinson and Clarence Darrow, and received many honors during her life including the 1988 “Governor’s the Dream Award,” an award she received in the same year that she died at the age of 98. — Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
Although the elder Shott only served in the U.S. Senate for 47 days, he was referred to as “Senator Shott” until his death. The elder Hugh Ike Shott died on Oct. 12, 1953, and his eldest son, Hugh I. Shott Jr., became editor/publisher of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, a position he held until he sold the paper to Worrell on Jan. 1, 1985. His brother, Jim was active in business, helping to launch Paper Supply Co., (now Janpak) Bluefield Gas Company and other businesses, but the Shott brothers combined their efforts in the early 1950s to take the next step in broadcast media with the launch of WHIS-TV in
Sept. 26, 1955, Sadly, Jim Shott died in 1957. Three of his sons stepped up to help operate the family businesses, with John C. Shott serving as general manager of the television station, Scott Shott returning home to handle the family business’ legal matters, and Edward “Ned” Shott, returning to serve as general manager of the newspaper and radio interests. The Shotts expanded their media business in 1968, by acquiring WBTW-TV, a television station in Florence, S.C., but an FCC Divestiture Order in April 1975, required the family to divest itself of one of its media outlets in Bluefield since it
owned the daily newspaper, WHIS-TV, as well as WHIS-AM radio and WHAJ-FM radio. The family decided to sell the TV station, and in 1979, the Shotts sold WHIS-TV to Quincy Newspapers, who changed the call letters to WVVA-TV. A year later in 1980, the Shott family bought KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, but sold that station in 1984 when they sold WBTW-TV. H.I. Shott Jr., remained involved in his various business activities and even held a seat on the board of General Telephone Company for a while. He continued his brother Jim’s tradition of the Shott Yuletide Breakfast tradition as well as the Community
Christmas Tree tradition. He attended nine Republican conventions, served on the WVU board of governors from 1924’32, was an avid golfer, helped establish Fincastle Country Club and was instrumental in establishing the Daily Telegraph Area Golf Tournament that is now called the Pocahontas Men’s Amateur Golf Tournament — an event that includes today. Shott was inducted posthumously into the West Virginia Newspaper Hall of Fame on Aug. 19, 1989. Hugh Ike Shott Jr., married Jane (McDermott) Shott, a Morgantown native, in 1924. In later years, they wintered in
Hawaii and lived at a residence on Bland Road that they called Lake Place. The first gift that Shott made through the foundation that bears his name was a $1 million gift to WVU to establish the Jane McDermott Shott Chair in Ophthalmology. Shott also made a $100,000 grant to Dr. J. Elliott Blaydes for his work in treating and preventing eye diseases and a $1 million grant to Bluefield College to build the new student center called Shott Hall. He died on March 11, 1986 at age 85, and Mrs. Jane Shott died five months later on Aug. 19, 1986. She was also 85. — Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
Nash was a rising freshman in Beaver High School in the fall of 1941 when Bluefield first served lemonade, but the chamber was forced to suspend the promotion from 1942 through 1945, due to sugar rationing during World War II. During his junior and senior years in high school, Nash completed his first 18 credit hours of college education at Bluefield College.
MERCER COUNTY WV TEACHERS FEDERAL CREDIT UNION Green Valley Business Center 258 Blue-Prince Road, Bluefield, WV 24701 Phone: 304-323-3732
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