I realize most who subscribers to this Substack have never met me, and even fewer met or knew my father. However, in today’s world you never know who is watching or where they’re watching from, and it’s possible that some people who knew my father are subscribers who might have an interest.
My father’s father passed away when Dad was 14, so he quit school to work and support his mom. A garage owner gave him an evening job if he would go back and finish school—and he almost did—but he ended up lying about his age and joining the Army. He went to Korea, got shot all to hell, and spent three years in a hospital. Afterwards, he got his GED and went to college on the GI Bill, ultimately earning a master’s degree from Marshall University.
He became a teacher, worked as a guidance counselor, helped develop adult vocational education in his home county, and retired as the director of school transportation. He understood how hard life was and how young adults sometimes just need a little help to get their life started down the right road. He was also one of the founders of the Shady Spring Citizens Scholarship Foundation, the Chairman of the Selection Committee of The Westmoreland Coal Company-Penn-Virginia Scholarship Foundation for 33 years, and he served as the President of the West Virginia Association of Pupil Transportation
Dad was a consummate believer in the importance of education; my sister and I have spent much of our lives meeting people who told us how our father changed their lives. When he passed in 2018, working with the West Virginia high school where he went as a young man and spent his early counseling career, we set up a college scholarship program. The funds are now dried up and without donations it will no longer exist.
If you would like to contribute—anything from a penny to a small fortune—to help a young adult begin their college education every year, you can mail a check to the below address and write “Richard Mann Scholarship” in the memo line:
Shady Spring High School
300 Hinton Road
Shady Spring, WV 25918