Photo by Joselyn King Living honorees gather prior to Wheeling Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday night at WesBanco Arena. Clockwise, from left, are Scott Davis, Brian Joseph, Bill Cornforth and Frances Schoolcraft.

The Wheeling Hall of Fame Committee on Saturday evening inducted 11 new members whose contributions to the city of Wheeling have helped make it the community it is today.

This year’s inductees were:

Education and Religion: Retired Wheeling Park High School teachers Fran Schoolcraft and Bill Cornforth, who grew the WPHS Speech and Debate team into a juggernaut that has won 45 straight state team titles, while also guiding countless students in the high school’s drama department.

Sports and Athletics: Scott Davis, a standout golfer who was a 10-time West Virginia PGA Player of the Year and four-time Senior West Virginia PGA Player of the Year; and the late Richard Mehen, an All-American college basketball player at Tennessee who played five seasons of pro ball, two in the National Basketball League and in the first three years of the NBA.

Philanthropy: The late couple of Martha and Robinson Parlin, a teacher and federal employee who established charitable trusts that have donated more than $10 million to promoting the health and welfare of children with physical and mental challenges, as well as the blind; and the late Charles Sonneborn, a principal in the creation of the Wheeling Park Commission and Wheeling Park whose donations to the park system were integral in its growth.

Public Service: The late Cliff Sligar, Wheeling’s fire chief for 24 years as well as a Wheeling city councilman from 1996-2004, who also served as the first director of the Belmont County 911 center; and the late Jesse Bloch, the former president of Bloch Brothers Tobacco and a former West Virginia House and Senate member who donated his parents’ home to create Elmhurst, the House of Friendship.

Business, Industry and Professions: The late Dr. Harriet B. Jones, the state’s first licensed female physician, a two-term member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and an advocate for women’s suffrage; and Brian Joseph, the founder of Touchstone Research Laboratory who also has served as the J.B. Chambers Foundation president and chairman of the West Liberty University board of directors.

Music and Fine Arts: The late Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty, who traveled the world as an independent working artist who worked in styles including realism, pen and ink, portraiture and nudes.