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Pat Clutter Memorial Golf Scramble Raises Money For Scholarships

Jonathan Nixon, a member of the Pat Clutter Memorial Scholarship board of directors, knows very well what that scholarship means to the students who earn them. He was the first recipient.

The scholarship given in memory of the late Pat Clutter — a former WTRF news director and Wheeling Park High School teacher who died from melanoma in 1997 — goes annually to a student looking to enter the communications field. Nixon said that scholarship helped him attend West Liberty University, where he earned his communications degree.

“Pat Clutter was one of my biggest inspirations in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do in high school. When I was a junior, I met Pat and started working in the radio program.”

That communications degree led him to work with local radio and television stations, and also led him to a spot on the scholarship board. He was hard at work Friday afternoon at the Crispin Golf Course at Oglebay Park Resort helping to put on the 29th annual Pat Clutter Memorial Golf Scramble, the scholarship program’s lone fundraiser.

The scramble was sold out for yet another year with 144 golfers on the course Friday. This year, the group was able to award three $2,000 scholarships to students entering communication fields.

“We have a ton of great sponsors that take care of us every year,” Nixon said. “It’s really great. It helps the kids out because the cost of college is so expensive nowadays.”

Not only does the scramble help fund the scholarship, Nixon said, but it also shows how much of an impact Clutter had on the community.

“Pat’s been gone for 29 years, and he still has a legacy,” he said. “And this tournament helps keep that alive.”