
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 16, 1991                   TAG: 9104160503
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WEST VIRGINIA HAS MUCH TO OFFER

IN REPLY to Ed Shamy's column March 24 that referred to West Virginia as the "Backward State," we would like to counter with a recent experience showing that West Virginia, especially its university, has much to offer, not only in this region but also in the international area.

West Virginia ranks high in the number of Rhodes scholars. West Virginia cooperative teaching is under way in China, India, West Germany, Egypt, Mexico, Scotland, Korea, West Africa and several other nations.

Recently six West Virginians were honored at a dinner in Morgantown: Jerry West, president and general manager of the former world basketball champion Los Angeles Lakers; Gen. Earl E. Anderson, one of only 21 four-star generals of the Marine Corps; Dr. David C. Fogarty, who is in international plastic surgery; William Leonhart, who has been U.S. representative in Rome, London and Tokyo; and Dr. Charles M. Vest, new president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, Lisa M. DiBartolomeo was named recipient of the Marshall Scholarship, which will provide her $45,000 to study for two years at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

The "poverty-coal-illiterate" brand can't be stamped on West Virginia any more than, for example, Virginia or Massachusetts. (We mention the latter because we know that many news people from that state take a plane to Charleston, W.Va., go by automobile to a nearby worked-out mining area, and then return to the East and write mostly fiction about the "depressed" folks in West Virginia.) TAM PARK VANNOY ROANOKE

by CNB