My Dad. Raised in Welch and later in Bluefield, he was a 1928 graduate of Beaver High School and worked many years for Bluefield Supply Company after starting at the rival Bluefield Hardware. He pitched semi-pro baseball (according to family legend, on one occasion he had the misfortune to pitch for a white pick-up team playing a barnstorming Negro League squad and the legendary Josh Gibson hit a homer off of him that is still in orbit somewhere) and during the 1930s fished professionally in Florida before serving with the US Army in Southern California during WWII in the Coastal Artillery and while there won every marksmanship award that the US Army had available. He was a renowned and respected hunting, fishing, and firearms expert, winning the "Field & Stream" medal for small-mouthed bass in 1953 and remaining a shotgun expert all his days, despite the effects of Parkinson's Disease. Won to Christ at a Billy Sunday crusade, he was a member and choir singer of Bland Street UMC.
He taught me to hunt, fish, and golf and gave me an abiding respect for firearms safety and for the Second Amendment. He also introduced me to the books of his favorite authors Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark...
My Dad. Raised in Welch and later in Bluefield, he was a 1928 graduate of Beaver High School and worked many years for Bluefield Supply Company after starting at the rival Bluefield Hardware. He pitched semi-pro baseball (according to family legend, on one occasion he had the misfortune to pitch for a white pick-up team playing a barnstorming Negro League squad and the legendary Josh Gibson hit a homer off of him that is still in orbit somewhere) and during the 1930s fished professionally in Florida before serving with the US Army in Southern California during WWII in the Coastal Artillery and while there won every marksmanship award that the US Army had available. He was a renowned and respected hunting, fishing, and firearms expert, winning the "Field & Stream" medal for small-mouthed bass in 1953 and remaining a shotgun expert all his days, despite the effects of Parkinson's Disease. Won to Christ at a Billy Sunday crusade, he was a member and choir singer of Bland Street UMC.
He taught me to hunt, fish, and golf and gave me an abiding respect for firearms safety and for the Second Amendment. He also introduced me to the books of his favorite authors Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark...
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