West Virginia University - Monticola Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

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vy C Vftc TVVON ; to any individual for his contribution to its welfare than is West Virginia to Earl W. Oglebay, member of the State Board of Edu- cation. Only he knows how frequently in these fifteen years of mem- bership on this Board he has been called upon to lay aside important business affairs of a personal kind to give his time and thought to the problems of the educational institutions of this state, but his colleagues know how ungrudgingly every such sacrifice was made. Mr. Oglebay has consistently declined political office and public honors of every kind but when America entered into the great world war and the nation called upon every patriot for his best, he accepted the appointment of Food Administrator tendered him by Herbert Hoover, National Food Administrator, on the recommendation of our War Governor, The Honorable John J. Cornwell. In this office his genius for organization manifested itself in an efficiency of service which promptly put West Virginia in the top group of the states of the Union in that service. As Food Administrator he not only served without pay but appropriated generous amounts of his money to the needs of the work. In recognition of his splendid services on the State Board of Education and as State Food Administrator, and in recognition of his contribution to the cause of better farming and in appreciation of his worth as a man, he was officially designated by the Committee of The National Exposition at San Francisco as West Virginia ' s Most Useful Citizen, and so on behalf of the editorial stafi of the Mon- ticola of 1926, and on behalf of the West Virginia University, and on behalf of the people of our great state, we dedicate this volume of the Monticola to WEST VIRGINIA ' S MOST USEFUL CITIZEN EARL W. OGLEBAY I t i

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ABOUT HIM Waddington Farm basking in the sunshine among the hills of Ohio County is one of the gems among the myriad beauty spots of West Virginia. This farm is the creature of Mr. Earl W. Oglebay, who makes his home upon it and finds in its quiet and beauty his chief delight. While Mr. Oglebay is a farmer and ruralist by nature, the ener- gies of his life have been chiefly devoted not to the farm but to business activities. In his young manhood he was associated with his father in the wholesale grocery business and carried a sample kit and order book into many of the older towns of the state. Later the Oglebays went into the iron and steel business. In this business they prospered conspicuously, and through it young Earl became an associate of the elder Rockefeller, Mark Hanna, President McKinley, Frederick T. Gates, and other captains of industry. For some years Mr. Oglebay spent most of his time in Cleve- land but later his interests in his native state and the community where Mrs. Oglebay had spent her girlhood days revived and West Virginia once more came to occupy the home place in his heart. In 1910 Governor Glasscock entreated him to accept a place on the State Board of Regents which was responsible for the sc holastic affairs of all the educational institutions of the state. This position he modestly accepted, chiefly because of his interest in agricultural education. Though offering his resignation frequently, he is still retained on that important directorate which is now called the State Board of Education. His term of service on this Board has the distinction of being the longest in the history of the Board. This service has been characterized by its unselfishness, efficiency, lofty ideals, sound judgment, foresight, and ready grasp of the many problems involved. Never has any state been more truly debtor

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3n iHemoriam GORDON BO McMillan CAPTAIN HOWARD J. GORMAN