WHEELING — The two people who built Wheeling Park High School’s speech and theater programs into the jewels of Ohio County Schools that they are will be honored for those accomplishments with induction into the Wheeling Hall of Fame.

Fran Schoolcraft and Bill Cornforth — who grew the Wheeling Park speech and debate team into a juggernaut that has won 45 straight state titles and grew the theater program into one of West Virginia’s best — will join 10 other individuals in the 2025 Wheeling Hall of Fame class. The induction ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. June 28 at WesBanco Arena. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at WesBancoArena.com or by calling the arena box office at 304-233-7000, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The last day to buy tickets is June 25.

Schoolcraft and Cornforth will be inducted under the category of Education and Religion.

Fran Schoolcraft

Frances M. Schoolcraft was born in Wheeling in 1948 at the Ohio Valley Medical Center. She attended Warwood High School, graduating in 1965, and continued to West Virginia University where she graduated in 1969 in Speech and Theater Education and continued to get a master’s degree plus 45 hours.

She also attended the University of North Carolina and the University of Southern Colorado for summer workshops.

She began her teaching career, which lasted almost four decades, at Triadelphia High School until the newly-constructed Wheeling Park High School opened. At Triadelphia, she taught English and theater and was the coach of speech and theater activities. At that time there were five students in speech class and 12 students in theater. The team competed in one tournament.

At the consolidated Wheeling Park High, she created the Speech and Theater Curriculum, offering opportunities to all schools that were joining as one. She also served as the head speech and theater coach and the department chair of Performing and Visual Arts from 1976 to her retirement in 2004. When the program first began at Wheeling Park High, there were about 10 speech students and 15 theater students in the extracurricular program. As time passed, these numbers grew to some 100 speech students and 500 theater students in the Speech and Theater Curriculum program. Many of these students went on to careers in professional speech or theater.

With her speech and theater background, Schoolcraft had many opportunities outside the traditional school setting. She taught speech at West Virginia Northern Community College and held classes at the penitentiary with the guards and inmates as students. The firemen of Wheeling offered two classes which she taught. In the West Virginia Forensic League, she served as treasurer or president. In the National Forensic League, she earned a Double Diamond, which is awarded for the number of speech students coached.

In addition, she created programs for middle school students, such as the annual Middle School Speech and Theater Event, where young students are coached by the high school students and then compete as they would in a high school speech tournament.

In theater she was a guest lecturer at the Lakeview Theater and Youth Camp. She was an adjunct musical theater director of “Grease” at West Liberty University and was the co-creator and presenter at an in-service in theater for West Virginia teachers. At times she also served as a judge for the West Virginia One Act Play Competition. During her tenure, she directed more than 100 performances, including “Charlie Brown”, “Seussical”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, and “West Side Story.” Examples of out-of-school learning include a program taking one act plays for presentation to elementary schools and taking students to New York City each year to see Broadway shows.

She was selected as Wheeling Park High School’s Teacher of the Year in 1993, and the Visual and Performing Arts Department won the Governor’s Award for an Exemplary School of the Arts. Also, she was selected as a Legend of Warwood, an award given to individuals from Warwood who have had an exemplary career. In her last year of teaching, she earned the U.S. Attorney Award for the Tradition of Excellence for Academic Achievement and Dedication to the Personal and Professional Development of Local Students. Despite these personal accolades, she would say that the highlight of her career was her Wheeling Park High School speech team winning first place in the State of West Virginia speech and debate tournament for 25 consecutive years.

After retirement, she was employed by the Loews hotels, which has 17 hotels that are dedicated as recreational and/or business hotels. She developed a curriculum to work with individuals in the marketing departments in public speaking, communication, and creativity. While working there with the marketing departments she won the Loews Excellence in Sales Award.

In her retirement, she hears from many former students who have succeeded in their careers because of the knowledge they gained in her speech and theater classes. This is the joy of teaching: knowing you made a difference.

Bill Cornforth

Bill Cornforth was born May 1, 1950, the son of Edward and Rita Cornforth and the brother to two sisters, Jeri and Lyn. His beginnings as a teacher of various forms of communication started in 1970 as a junior at Wheeling College (later named Wheeling Jesuit University, now Wheeling University). While pursuing a degree in English, he became fascinated with the theater program. He then acted in all of their productions and directed his first play.

After college, Cornforth found more theater experience at Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theatre. For much of the 1970s and ’80s, Cornforth acted in more than 20 Towngate plays and directed seven more. The Towngate offered Cornforth a wealth of opportunities that would now guide him in his new role of theater educator.

He gained his first teaching position at St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School. In his short but very enjoyable year and a half, Cornforth discovered the value of creativity in young students’ learning, especially through creative dramatics.

At age 23, he made a turn to teach inmates at the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville. He taught reading, math, GED, and college prep. To offer a new creative experience, he created an inmate drama group and directed its first production, “Twelve Angry Men.” The quality of the production grabbed praise from both inmate and public audiences, so the Penitentiary Players produced more plays. During that time, Cornforth received a letter of commendation from Gov. Jay Rockefeller and an award from Wheeling Jesuit University as Outstanding Alumnus in Education.

For a grand entrance into the 1980s and 1990s, Cornforth married Carol Galligan and together had four children – Jennifer, Kristin, John, and Ryan. In 1986, he earned his master’s degree from West Virginia University in Communication in Education. Cornforth then reconnected with Wheeling Jesuit University between 1988-2013 as an adjunct teacher. He taught interpersonal and group communication skills in WJU’s adult evening program. Again, he engaged non-theater students with theater activities such as role playing to spark lively class communication about real world conflicts.

In the fall of 1979, Wheeling Park High School hired Cornforth to teach Speech, Debate, Theater and Language Arts, to direct the fall play, and to be assistant Speech and Theater coach to Schoolcraft.

Cornforth succeeded Schoolcraft after her retirement in 2004, adding Technical Theater, Acting, and Speech Honors to his repertoire of courses. Extracurricular activities included Park Players Moderator, Co-Technical Director, Musical Director, and Head Speech and Debate Team Coach. During this time, the Speech and Debate team ventured to tournaments outside of West Virginia.

They competed against 35 schools from the greater Pittsburgh area, continuously placing first, second or third. They also traveled to national tournaments in major U.S. cities that hosted more than 2,000 participants each. Park consistently brought home semifinalist or finalist individual winners.

In 2022, he received Honorable Mention for the Broadway theater Tony Award’s National Excellence in Education Award. Also in 2022, he received recognition from Mayor Glenn Elliot “for distinguished service, loyalty, and dedication to the city of Wheeling.”

By the time he retired in 2023, the speech team had won 43 consecutive state championships, he had directed more than 50 productions at WPHS, and was a teacher for a total of 51 years. Following his retirement, he received recognition and a state flag from Sen. Joe Manchin “in honor of his many contributions to the Wheeling community.”

A dedicated educator from 1972 to 2023, he served students at several schools, including 43 years at Wheeling Park High School. His courses ranged from Acting, Speech, Interpersonal Communication, Debate and Language Arts. His mission was to inspire students to become excellent communicators. He directed more than 60 plays and musicals for Wheeling Park High School, Wheeling Jesuit University, Towngate Theater, and the West Virginia State Penitentiary. For Wheeling Park High School’s Speech and Debate team, he guided numerous state and national finalists. As head coach, his teams won 17 state championships. He regards his career as a teacher to be a privilege and a gift.