Portal:West Virginia/Selected biography
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William Williams Chapman (August 11, 1808 – October 18, 1892) was an American politician and lawyer in Oregon and Iowa. He was born and raised in Virginia. He served as a United States Attorney in Iowa when it was part of the Michigan and Wisconsin territories, and then represented the Iowa Territory in the United States House of Representatives. He later immigrated to the Oregon Country, where he served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature. After settling in Portland he helped to found The Oregonian newspaper and promoted economic interests in the city. He also was involved with building Canyon Road near Portland, and fought in the Rogue River War in Oregon. In later years he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly and promoted the expansion of railroads from Portland. Chapman Square, a park in downtown Portland, is named for him and was built on land he sold to the city.
John Beilein (pronounced bee-line; born February 5, 1953) is an American college basketball coach and current men's basketball head coach at the University of Michigan. He is the 16th head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. The 2010–11 season was his fourth at Michigan, with whom he has a six-year contract. Following the 2010-11 season, Beilein has won 543 career games (including games that were not at the Division I level, but excluding junior college games). He has previously coached the West Virginia Mountaineers (2002–2007), Richmond Spiders (1997–2002), Canisius College Golden Griffins (1992–1997) in Division I as well as Le Moyne College (1983–1992), Nazareth College (1982–1983) and Erie Community College (1978–1982). Beilein is the only active collegiate coach to have achieved 20-win seasons at four different levels—junior college, NAIA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I. He has been recognized as Coach of the Year four times: in 1981 at Erie Community College, in 1988 at LeMoyne, in 1994 at Canisius, and in 1998 at Richmond. In addition, Beilein was the seventh of only eight coaches in history (along with Lefty Driesell, Jim Harrick, Lon Kruger, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, Eddie Sutton and later Tom Penders) to have taken four different schools to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Tournament. Beilein's first Division I head coaching position was at Canisius, a hometown school of which he had been a fan. He turned around the school's losing program and helped it earn two National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and one NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Tournament invitation in five years. Then at Richmond he reached the NIT twice in five years. In five years at West Virginia, his teams twice advanced several rounds in the NCAA tournament and twice went to the NIT, including one championship. At Michigan, the school reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in over a decade. He has a 13–6 record in the NIT and an 8–6 record in the NCAA tournament.
Frank Woodruff Buckles (born Wood Buckles; February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) was the last surviving American veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1917 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe. During World War II, he was captured by Japanese forces while working in the shipping business, and spent three years in the Philippines as a civilian prisoner. After the war, Buckles married in San Francisco and moved to Gap View Farm near Charles Town, West Virginia. A widower at age 98, he worked on his farm until the age of 105. In his last years, he was Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation. As chairman, he advocated the establishment of a World War I memorial similar to other war memorials in Washington, D.C.. Toward this end, Buckles campaigned for the District of Columbia War Memorial to be renamed the National World War I Memorial. He testified before Congress in support of this cause, and met with President George W. Bush at the White House. Buckles was awarded the World War I Victory Medal at the conclusion of that conflict, and the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal retroactively following the medal's creation in 1941, as well as the French Legion of Honor in 1999. His funeral was on March 15, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery, with President Barack Obama attending and with full military honors.
Richard Joseph "Dick" Padden (September 17, 1870 – October 31, 1922), nicknamed "Brains", was an American professional baseball player, born in Wheeling, West Virginia, who played mainly as a second baseman in Major League Baseball for nine seasons from 1896 to 1905. After playing a season and a half in the minor leagues, the right-handed infielder began his major league career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played three seasons in Pittsburgh, from 1896 to 1898, before playing one season for the Washington Senators in 1899. He returned to the minor leagues for the 1900 season, where he was the player-manager for the Chicago White Sox, then a minor league team. When the Chicago club entered the American League, a major league, the following season, he moved on to play one season for the St. Louis Cardinals, before becoming Captain of the St. Louis Browns from 1902 and 1905. In total, Padden played in 874 games, and collected 814 hits in 3545 at bats, for a lifetime batting average of .258. He finished in the league's top-ten finishers in being hit by pitches six times, including a league-leading 18 in 1904. Padden's post-career activities included duties as a talent scout for the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators, as well a lengthy career in the flint glass industry in Ohio. After retiring, he attempted to gain the Democratic Party nomination for the 1912 mayoral race in his hometown of Martins Ferry, Ohio. He died there, in 1922, at the age of 52 of apoplexy.
Kenneth R. Shadrick (August 4, 1931 – July 5, 1950) was a private in the United States Army at the onset of the Korean War. He was widely but incorrectly reported as the first American soldier killed in action in the war. Shadrick was born in Harlan County, Kentucky, one of 10 children. After dropping out of high school in 1948, he joined the US Army, and spent a year of service in Japan before being dispatched to South Korea at the onset of the Korean War in 1950 along with his unit, the 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. During a patrol, Shadrick was killed by the machine gun of a North Korean T-34 tank, and his body was taken to an outpost where journalist Marguerite Higgins was covering the war. Higgins later reported that he was the first soldier killed in the war, a claim that was repeated in media across the United States. His life was widely profiled, and his funeral drew hundreds of people. His death is now believed to have occurred after the first American combat fatalities in the Battle of Osan. However, since the identities of other soldiers killed before Shadrick remain unknown, he is still often (incorrectly) cited as the first US soldier killed in the war.
Harry Randall Truman (October 30, 1896 – May 18, 1980) was a resident of the U.S. state of Washington who lived on Mount St. Helens and came to brief fame in the months preceding the 1980 eruption after stubbornly refusing to leave his home. He was the owner and caretaker of Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake. The lodge was located at the south end of Spirit Lake at the foot of the mountain, and was in the danger zone at the time of the eruption. After Truman's death, his family and friends reflected on his love for the mountain. He was commemorated in a book by his niece and a song by Headgear. In 1981, Art Carney portrayed Truman in the docu-drama film St. Helens.
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch," for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; "The Logo," in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek," after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome, a squad that would be inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Jedd Lindon Gyorko (/ˈdʒʊərkoʊ/ JOOR-koh; born September 23, 1988) is an American professional baseball infielder with the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). Gyorko attended University High School in Morgantown, West Virginia. Playing for the school's baseball team as a shortstop, he was named one of the best baseball players in the state. He then enrolled at West Virginia University, and set numerous school records for the West Virginia Mountaineers baseball program. Gyorko won the 2010 Brooks Wallace Award as the best shortstop in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The Padres selected Gyorko in the second round of the 2010 MLB Draft. Playing in minor league baseball, Gyorko shifted to third base, and developed into one of the best prospects in baseball. He made the Padres' Opening Day roster as their starting second baseman in the 2013 season, and had a strong rookie season.
