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.

WHEELING — The Wheeling Hall of Fame has 12 new members following an induction ceremony Saturday night at WesBanco Arena.

Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder welcomed the crowd while paying homage to recent flooding happening in Ohio County.

“The honorees represent the best of what our city stands for,” he said. “For the past two weeks, our city has been the place for mass destruction.”

Nine lives were claimed and businesses were lost during the flood, Magruder noted.

“On behalf of the city, I offer our deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones and those whose lives have been forever changed,” he said. “First responders, volunteers and neighbors came together in the true spirit of Wheeling.”

Among those inducted into the Wheeling Hall of Fame Saturday night was the late Cliff Sligar, a former Wheeling fire chief who was instrumental in adding emergency medical services to the fire department. He also developed 911 systems in both Ohio and Belmont counties.

A contingent of Wheeling firefighters entered the arena and stood at attention during Sligar’s induction in the category of public service.

Sligar, also a former Wheeling councilman, died in 2021. Accepting for him was his wife, Sherry Sligar.

Sherry Sligar noted how much Sligar had loved being a firefighter, and that it was a career he wanted ever since he was a child.

“He always said he was known to skip a few classes to go to fires …,” she said. “He always said he was the luckiest man alive — getting to go every day to a job he loved.”

Retired Wheeling Park High School speech and debate team coaches Frances Schoolcraft and Bill Cornforth were both inducted in the education and religion category

Schoolcraft explained she is recovering from a broken ankle, and gave her acceptance speech from her seat near the stage.

Schoolcraft taught for nearly four decades in Ohio County Schools. She began her career at the former Triadelphia High School before moving to the new consolidated Wheeling Park High School in 1976.

She would build a speech and debate team there that would go on to win its first 25 state championships under her leadership before she retired in 2004.

“I really don’t know what to say, and that’s a little disconcerting for a speech teacher,” Schoolcraft told the crowd.

Also inducted was her former assistant and successor as speech and debate team coach, Bill Cornforth. He taught for more than 50 years, with the last 43 years being at WPHS.

In his speech, Cornforth recognized Schoolcraft as the “architect of the speech and debate program at Wheeling Park High School.” His teams would go on to win 17 state championships.

“My goal the first year was, ‘Don’t mess this up,'” Cornforth said.

He credited past school administrators for “understanding the value of the arts” while building the speech and theatre programs at WPHS. He especially acknowledged her past students, whom he said “did all the work” to make the program successful.

Brian Joseph — president, CEO, and founder of Touchstone Research Laboratory — wore a tie emblazoned with the periodic table to give his acceptance speech. He was inducted in the category of business, industry and professions.

He also asked his family members and co-workers present to stand as he began his speech. Joseph estimated about 70 people came to the event on his behalf.

Joseph thanked his family for supporting him during the first 10 years of his career, as it took him that long to establish a profitable business.

Under Joseph’s leadership, Touchstone Research Laboratory has created hundreds of inventions with success in materials development, new products, and aerospace testing. Touchstone has spun-out companies that manufacture revolutionary materials, design new manufacturing processes, and test technologies in a wide array of industries, including next-generation aircraft and rockets.

“These people are literally inventing the future out there,” he told the crowd. “We’re involved in pretty much every rocket launch in one way or another — in every aircraft, in one way or another.

“We’re working on the next generation of tennis rackets right now, and we have made our first golf club. We’ll see how that goes.”

Scott Davis, inducted in the category of sports and athletics, likely wants to be among the first to try out that golf club.

A graduate of the former Triadelphia High School, Davis was the NCAA Long Drive champion in 1976 while at Marshall University. After working at Oglebay’s Speidel Golf Club, he won the 1978 West Virginia Amateur title before turning pro as a four-decade PGA of America and WV PGA Golf professional in southern West Virginia.

He won the WV Open championship four times and was low senior four times; was a 10-time WV PGA “Player of the Year,” a four-time “Senior WV PGA Player of the Year,” Tri-State PGA titleist, Tri-State Tour champion, and Tri-State Match Play titleist.

Davis also competed in 18 national club professional events and six majors’ championships.

“I couldn’t have imagined my journey would have taken me from the Crispin golf course at Oglebay Park to playing the PGA Championship,” he said. “I fell in love with the game when I was 8 years old. My mom would take me to play the Par 3 and hit balls at the driving range. It turned out my first job would be at the driving range.”

Inducted for public service was Jesse A. Bloch (1879-1951). A member of the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company family, Bloch served as a member of the House of Delegates in the 1910s and the state Senate in the 1920s.

He is most credited with his deciding vote that approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in West Virginia giving women the right to vote. In addition, he introduced legislation establishing workmen’s compensation law in the state.

Jeanie Caldwell Dougherty (1844-1935) was inducted in the category of music and fine arts.

Caldwell left Wheeling at the age of 15 when her father was appointed as the U.S. consul in the Hawaiian Islands by President Abraham Lincoln. There she met her future husband, married at 19, and widowed at 30.

She never remarried, and devoted her life to making art and seeing the world. Locally, her art was advocated by fellow Wheeling Hall of Fame member George Kossuth, who, in the mid-1940s, discovered her paintings hidden for half a century in his home — the former Caldwell homestead in North Wheeling.

Dr. Harriet B. Jones (1856-1943) was the state’s first licensed female physician and was a member of the State Medical Association, Ohio County Medical Society, and American Medical Association when there were few female physicians.

She built and ran Wheeling’s first women’s hospital at 15th and Jacob streets for more than 20 years. The first president of the Ohio County Anti-Tuberculosis League, Jones traveled the state by rail and car to educate citizens on preventing the disease. An advocate for women’s suffrage, she was instrumental in getting West Virginia University to admit women.

She also served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates, being first elected in 1924.

Richard “Dick” Mehen (1922-1986) was inducted in the cateogry of sports and athletics. The Wheeling High School graduate joins his older brother Bernie in the Wheeling Hall of Fame. They were the first two high school players named all-class 1st Team All-State three times before starring at the University of Tennessee.

Dick Mehen played five seasons of pro basketball — two in the National Basketball League with the Toledo Jeeps and Waterloo Hawks, plus the first three seasons of the NBA with Waterloo, Baltimore Bullets, Boston Celtics, Fort Wayne Pistons, and Milwaukee Hawks. His pro career included 2,067 points, 505 rebounds and 480 assists.

Martha Clark Parlin (1887-1968) and her husband Robinson S. Parlin (1887-1982) were inducted in the area of philanthropy.

She was a teacher and he was a federal employee. They married late in life, lived frugally and had no descendants. As such, they were able to establish charitable trusts with substantial financial assets directed to promote the health and welfare of physically or mentally challenged children and the blind.

Since these trusts were created, more than $10 million has been distributed to local charities benefiting children and making Wheeling one of the smallest communities in the nation with multiple prominent benevolent organizations assisting challenged and underprivileged children.

Charles Sonneborn Sr. (1883-1961) was inducted in the area of philanthropy.

The Wheeling business and civic leader had a principal role in establishing Wheeling Park and the Wheeling Park Commission. Rather than developing the property where Wheeling Park now is located, he offered the option to purchase the property to the Wheeling Chamber of Commerce and the city of Wheeling.

By December 24, 1924, the community raised the necessary funds to purchase and equip Wheeling Park, making it the first public park in Wheeling. He and his family were significant donors to improvements for Wheeling Park, including the entrance gates, Sonneborn Shelter, Frank Rock Garden, and the living plants spelling “Wheeling Park” on National Road.