Dr. E. Gordon Gee is one of America’s most prominent higher education leaders, having helmed universities for more than three decades. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the top 10 university presidents in the United States.

In 2014, Gee returned to West Virginia University, where his career as a university president began. His leadership goals include putting students first, advancing the university’s research agenda, partnering with West Virginia communities and making sure that 1.8 million West Virginians know in their hearts and minds that West Virginia University is their university.

Born in Vernal, Utah, Gee graduated from the University of Utah with an honors degree in history and earned his J.D. and Ed.D. degrees from Columbia University. He clerked under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before being named a judicial fellow and staff assistant to the

Oce Worthington Smith Jr.

FAIRMONT — Oce Worthington Smith Jr., 76, of Fairmont, passed away on Tuesday, October 14, 2014, at the Arbor’s at Fairmont Nursing Center.

He was born in Barrackville, on January 4, 1938, the son of the late Oce Worthington Smith Sr. and Norma “Polly” Margaret Lough Smith.

Mr. Smith was preceded in death by his loving wife, Carol Ann Bunner Smith.

Oce was raised on a farm in the community of Monumental on the outskirts of that town and was very proud of his heavy American Indian and English/Scots-Irish heritage. He graduated from the old Barrackville High School in a class of 24 students, graduated from Fairmont State College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and went on to do his post-graduate work in political science at West Virginia University.

It is difficult to figure how he ever got

Evan Blackwood, Panhandle
Nathaniel T Booth, Braxton
Nathaniel Colebank, Panhandle
Cody Grimmitt, Randolph
Tyler S Heffner, Upshur
Christian Hushon, Panhandle
Sammy A. Jesmer, Gilmer
Ian V Mc Saughlin, Lewis
Parker T Onestinghel, Monroe
Dale L. Scott III, Marion
Ian Sparkman, Harrion
Preston Surface, Monroe
William L. Teufel III, Lewis
Mark W. Veach, Randolph
Josheph M. Wellman, Webster
Charles C. Whitney, Barbour
Wesley P Withrow, Kanawha
Jacob Work, Marion

President: Omar Salem

Vice President: Nic Cheuvront

Loan Officer: Sam Tonkovich

Teller: Casey Martel, Dakota Null, and Parker Boughton

Branch Bankers: Tyler Johnson (Barbour), Dominic Muttillo (Braxton), Ryan Kunis (Panhandle), Michael Atkinson (Gilmer), Levi Masters (Calhoun), Andrew Armstrong (Lewis), John Wilfong (Upshur), Jamie Rose (Harrison), Ricky Willis (Kanawha), David Crupe (Marion), Demitrius Servicz (Randolph), Andrew Lyons (Monroe), and Killian Coyne (Webster)