WVU Magazine

Written by Jake Stump / Photos by Brian Persinger / Video Production by Kelly Heasley

Mannon Gallegly turns 90 next year. A lifelong professor and researcher, Gallegly retired as director of the Division of Plant and Soil Sciences at WVU in 1986. He’s outlived many of his first students. Yet today, 26 years following his “retirement,” you can find Gallegly stooping around the WVU Organic Research Farm off Route 705 picking tomatoes and dumping them into plastic sacks.

Written by Jake Stump / Photographs by M. G. Ellis and Scott Lituchy / Video Production by Scott Lituchy

Bobby Davis did not want to go to college. He had carved his career plan in stone, thanks in part to a fascination with his grandfather’s tales of “shooting guns” and “hand-to-hand combat.” Bobby’s grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran, Bronze Star recipient, and United States Marine.

Written by Diana Mazzella / Photos by Brian Persinger / Video Production by Kelly Heasley

As the chill began to build in the mountains and the rhetoric on TV screens across the country got louder, a small group arrived at a house in Morgantown, WV.

Written by Diana Mazzella / Photographs by Scott Lituchy / Video Production by Scott Lituchy

There’s a story of a farmer who flung handfuls of seeds into a field. The seeds that rested in good ground gave returns far beyond their initial value.

Written by Jake Stump / Photographs by M. G. Ellis and Brian Persinger / Video Production by Scott Lituchy

No matter where you are a flat tire can bring your day to a screeching halt. Unless you’re bearded and in buckskins.

Written by Jake Stump / Photographs by Scott Lituchy / Video Production by Kelly Heasley and Scott Lituchy

The future happens when people don’t wait to be asked to invent. When they don’t wait until later to take on a challenge or to make it or break it. They have today and they know it.