Bill Wilmoth

A Wheeling resident with a long history of service to West Virginia University will on June 19 be given the university’s highest award for service to WVU.

Attorney Bill Wilmoth will be inducted along with three others into WVU’s Order of Vandalia, joining David Alvarez, Steve Antoline and David Hendrickson, a Charleston attorney who currently serves as the chairman of Wheeling University’s Board of Trustees.

The Order of Vandalia, the highest recognition for service to WVU, dates back to 1960 when WVU President Elvis J. Stahr outlined his idea for a special honor to be bestowed on the university’s most loyal servants. Inductees through the years have included U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, Carolyn Eberly Blaney, Joseph Gluck, John T. Chambers, Earl L. Core, Ken Kendrick and Milan Puskar.

Born in Elkins and raised in Fairmont, Wilmoth is a WVU College of Law graduate and partner with Steptoe & Johnson PLLC who previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia from 1993 to 1999. For a decade, he was a member of the WVU Board of Governors, including two years as chair. Later, he was part of the search committee for the hiring of current WVU President Michael Benson.

A two-time University graduate and former U.S. Army captain, Hendrickson is a founding partner of legal firm Hendrickson and Long, PLLC, and the president and founder of Hendrickson Mediation Services. Before serving as Board of Trustees chair at WU, he previously served as chair of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission from 2008 to 2013, and spearheaded fundraising efforts for the Pride Practice Field and Facility, the permanent rehearsal space for the Mountaineer Marching Band.

A Harrison County native and University alum, Alvarez serves as president of Applied Construction Solutions, an energy infrastructure construction firm specializing in natural gas facilities, liquefied natural gas, renewable natural gas and electric power generation nationwide; and CEO of Energy Transportation, LLC, which supplies the natural gas industry. Alvarez was a member of the WVU Board of Governors from 2012 to 2022, including two years in leadership roles as vice chair and chair.

Antoline is a Nicholas County native and University alum who founded Superior Highwall Miners in Beckley, and oversaw its growth into the world’s largest manufacturer of highwall mining equipment. With his son, he now oversees diverse operations, including natural gas and oil production, property development, home building and other company interests. Previously, Antoline co-chaired the “Grow Hope” fundraising campaign to support construction of WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital.