WILMOTH

For the vast majority of his life since age 7, scouting has been a significant part of attorney Bill Wilmoth’s life – as a scout, as an assistant scoutmaster and as a board member of both the Mountaineer Area and Ohio River Valley councils. The former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia credits scouting for the person he is today.

Scouting America will honor Wilmoth’s dedication and contributions to the organization Thursday evening, when he will receive its Distinguished Citizen Award at a dinner at Wheeling Park’s White Palace.

Wilmoth, now a member of the firm Steptoe & Johnson, said he’s incredibly honored to receive the award, which recognizes outstanding individuals for their dedication to youth, community service and the values of scouting. Yet he looks at his service to scouting as a calling he has cherished throughout his life.

“I never really thought about being honored,” he said. “I was just doing something I thought was important.”

Wilmoth said his love for the outdoors got him into scouting as a child, but he soon realized it meant so much more to him.

“Lots of my friends joined at the same time,” he said, “so it just became a way of building friendships. And though I didn’t know it at the time,it was a way of sort of building my personal credo as an adult.”

He continued his relationship with Boy Scouts of America, now called Scouting America, into adulthood. As an assistant scoutmaster, he watched sons Sam and Pete achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

As a member of the board of directors of the Ohio River Valley Council and serving as its legal counsel, he was integral in the merger of the Ohio River Valley and Mountaineer Area councils into one.

“Scouting America had been pushing smaller councils to merge so that they can all survive,” Wilmoth said. “The two old councils had touched each other, and were a natural candidate for getting together two strong, small councils to become one stronger, bigger council.”

His commitment to community goes beyond scouting. Wilmoth has served in leadership roles with the U.S. Department of Justice, the WVU Board of Governors as a past chairman, and as past president of the Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation, among others. Professionally, he has been awarded by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America.

Those honors, and the honor Wilmoth will accept Thursday, all come from that credo he said was built through scouting. He appreciated them as a child while learning them and cherishes them now as an adult.

“When you look at the Scout Law and look down those attributes, who wouldn’t want their kid to learn to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, all of those things?” Wilmoth said.

FCX CEO Craig Walker was honored as a Distinguished Citizen at an October dinner in Morgantown. Hope Gas and WesBanco have been honored as Distinguished Corporate Citizens. Hope Gas was recognized at the October dinner in Morgantown, while WesBanco will be recognized at Thursday’s dinner at the White Palace.