Glenville State College alums gathered on campus for the 2010 GSC Alumni Day on Saturday, April 24th. A day full of activities culminated with the Annual Alumni Day Banquet in the Mollohan Campus Community Center Ballroom. Around one-hundred alumni, family, and friends enjoyed a buffet dinner and the presentation of the 2010 GSC Alumni Association Awards.

The prestigious GSC Alumnus of the Year Award was presented to David G. Grapes II ’73. The award is given to an alumnus or alumna of Glenville State College for outstanding contributions in their chosen field of endeavor or for outstanding personal accomplishments. He has an extensive list of credits for directing and producing in theatre. Currently, Grapes is a tenured full Professor and Director of the School of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Northern Colorado. The school produces nine mainstage productions each year and operates the Little Theatre of the Rockies (LTR), the oldest summer stock theatre in the west. As the Executive Producer of LTR, Kinder produces five productions each summer utilizing the talents of University of Northern Colorado students and faculty as well as professional artists. “The power of the education that I received at Glenville State College opened the many doors that I have walked through in my career. It is at GSC that I developed my budding interest in my life’s work and passion,” said Grapes. Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Grapes obtained his B.A. degree in Speech/Theatre from Glenville State College in 1973 and an M.F.A. in Acting/Directing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1976. He resides in Windsor, Colorado with his wife Dawn and children Natalie and David III.

Jeffrey D. Lancaster, M.D. received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Dr. Lancaster is a full-time hospitalist at West Virginia University Children’s Hospital where he specializes in inpatient medicine. He also serves as the facility’s Pediatric Clerkship Co-Director where he manages and evaluates WVU’s Medical Students rotating through the Department of Pediatrics. A Braxton County, West Virginia native, Lancaster received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry from GSC in 1999 and earned his Doctor of Medicine from WVU in 2003. “Coming back to GSC to receive this award reminds him of the wonderful family feeling I felt when I was a student here. It is great to come back and experience that again,” said Lancaster. He is the son of Riley and Linda Lancaster of Gassaway, West Virginia. He and his wife Jamie reside in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Glenville, West Virginia native Rick Kinder ’82 received the Outstanding Teacher Award in recognition of his distinguished career in secondary education. Kinder has been a Mathematics Teacher at Gilmer County High School since 1983. He was named the 2009 Gilmer County Teacher of the Year and honored as one of the twelve best teachers in West Virginia at the 2009 Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Awards. Since 1987, Kinder has worked cooperatively with the GSC Education Department as a partner teacher for students who are training to become math teachers. “For one-hundred and thirty-eight years, GSC has been creating excellent teachers. GSC tutored, molded, shaped, and instilled in me all the knowledge to become a good teacher. I applaud everyone at Glenville State College for being the best Teacher College around,” said Kinder. He and his wife Letisha ‘Leigh’ Kinder ’87 reside in Glenville with their sons Cam and Noah.

The GSC Alumni Association Posthumous Award was bestowed to Carlos Ratliff ’34. The Hinton, West Virginia native lettered in football, basketball, and baseball at Glenville State. From 1934 to 1942, he coached at Clay, Hinton, North Fork, and Williamson High Schools. During summers from 1933 to 1938, he played in the Mountain State Baseball League for the Bluefield Blue Grays. He entered the Navy in 1942 at the onset of the war. While stationed in Iowa, at the Pre-Flight School, he was baseball coach for the Navy Sea Hawks. At the conclusion of World War II in 1945, he returned to Glenville State College to become athletic director and to coach the baseball, football, and basketball teams. Following an illness in 1951, he stopped coaching basketball and football while remaining baseball coach and athletic director until his death in 1961. In 2002, he was posthumously inducted into the GSC Curtis Elam Athletic Hall of Fame. “On behalf of my entire family, I would like to thank the Alumni Association for honoring my father. Glenville Sate College was truly his home,” said daughter Ann Ratliff Barker of Williamsburg, Virginia. Ratliff is survived by his wife Dr. Margaret Tate-Ratliff Hofstetter ’47 and two daughters.

Also honored posthumously was Dr. Richard G. Hoover. He was a well known Upshur County, West Virginia educator, former

Superintendent of Upshur County Schools, and dedicated civic leader. Born in Lewis County, West Virginia, Hoover graduated from Glenville State College with a Bachelor of Arts in Education in 1954. He earned both his Master’s and Doctorate Degrees from West Virginia University. Dr. Hoover retired in 1999 after over fifty years of service in education. He is survived by his wife Carolyn Daugherty Hoover of Buckhannon, and two daughters. He was preceded in death by son Richard II. “Glenville State College helped build a wonderful foundation for my father’s career in education. It was here that he met my mother. So my family has much to thank GSC for,” said daughter Ramonda Lipscomb of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

The GSC Alumni Association also honored Dr. Richard N. Butler ’74 with the Posthumous Award. The distinguished and well known educator lost his life in a tragic tractor accident at his family farm in the fall of 2009. The Gilmer County, West Virginia native received his Bachelor of Arts in Education Degree from GSC in 1974 and earned both a Master’s and Doctoral Degree from West Virginia University. During his career, he served the students of West Virginia as a teacher at Gassaway Middle School, Parkersburg High School, Hamilton Junior High School, and Franklin Junior High School. He also served as assistant principal at Franklin Junior High School, principal of Gilmer County High School, and as an Associate Professor in the Education Department at Glenville State College. Butler concluded his lifelong career in education as Superintendent of Schools in both Gilmer and Ritchie County. He retired in 2007 after 33 years of public school service. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Kathy Poling Butler ’76, GSC’s Provost and Senior Vice President, son Michael and wife Kate of Woodbridge, Virginia, daughter Jennifer Wible ’05 and husband Bob of Dunbar, West Virginia, and daughter Allison Atkins and husband Chris of Huntington, West Virginia. Also surviving are his three sisters and four brothers. “Glenville State College and education was very important in Rick’s life. He was an outstanding educator that GSC could be proud of,” said his wife of thirty-five years. The Richard N. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund, in care of the Glenville State College Foundation has been established in his memory.

The Alumni Chapter Award was presented to Carol Hawkins Hamilton ’62. The Upshur County native graduated from GSC in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in

Education. She began her teaching career in Buckhannon, West Virginia before relocating to Florida where she taught for seven years. Hamilton retired from teaching after twenty-six years at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2009, she started the Kentucky Chapter of the GSC Alumni Association. She is looking forward to the chapter growing in the coming years. “Had I not received a scholarship from GSC, I may not have had the opportunity to go to college. Because of the well rounded education that I received at GSC, I was never afraid to go into a classroom,” said Hamilton. She resides in Louisville with her husband Don. The Hamiltons have one son Joe, daughter-in-law Shannon, and two grandchildren.

Lewis County, West Virginia native Maureen Kraus Gildein ’82 also received an Alumni Chapter Award for starting the North Carolina Chapter of the GSC Alumni Association. Maureen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health, Physical Education, and Social Studies from Glenville State College in 1982. She received her Master of Arts degree in Health and Physical Education in 1990 from Gardner Webb University and her Master of Arts degree in Educational Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1992. She began her teaching career in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1984 and continued to teach until going into school administration in 1992. Since 2007, she has been the principal at Shady Grove Elementary School in Advance, North Carolina. “Last year, I bumped into someone wearing a West Virginia tee shirt and found out he was a GSC graduate. A few days later I met another GSC Alum. I felt that God was sending me a message that I needed to start an Alumni Chapter. There are three-hundred and seventy-five GSC graduates living in North Carolina. In talking with many of these alumni I have discovered that there is a common thread; we all felt like part of a family at Glenville State College.” Gildein resides in Mocksville, North Carolina with her husband Jim and their four children.

The GSC Alumni Service Award was presented to Ralph J. Holder ‘56. In April 2009, Holder completed a two-term stint as President of the Alumni Association. He now

serves as the Vice President of the Association. Holder graduated from GSC in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts in Education. He earned his Master’s Degree from West Virginia University in 1961. Under his leadership, the Alumni Council worked to establish regional chapters. At present, there are active chapters in Charleston, Huntington, the Mid Ohio Valley (where he serves as chapter representative), Clarksburg/Bridgeport, the Shenandoah Valley, Eastern Maryland/Northern Virginia, Texas, Kentucky, and North Carolina. While attending GSC, he was a member of the Pioneer Football, basketball, and baseball teams. Holder is retired from his longtime football coach’s position in Belpre. As a testimony to his remarkable impact on that community, Belpre High School’s football stadium is named in his honor. Holder was inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and was inducted into Glenville State College’s Curtis Elam Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.He and his wife Joann live in Belpre, Ohio. They have three children and five grandchildren. Holder was unable to attend the Alumni Day Banquet but sent a message thanking the Alumni Association for the honor. Holder has sent many of the high school athletes that he coached to GSC. He is an eternal supporter of Glenville State College.

The Alumni Day Banquet was capped off by a special announcement by GSC President Peter Barr’s wife Betsy Barr that the new GSC residence hall now under construction will be named Goodwin Hall. Margaret Miller Goodwin ’51 has made a significant gift to Glenville State College, and the building will be named in her honor. The first wing of Goodwin Hall is scheduled to open in August 2010.

For more information about the event or to join the GSC Alumni Association, contact Debbie Nagy, Director of Alumni Affairs, at debra.nagy@glenville.edu or (304) 462-4122.