I remember when I started teaching Social Studies at Marsh Fork High School in the Fall of 1962. I had graduated there in 1958 and was happy to be going back to my alma mater to teach. The strangest part of it all was adjusting to being colleagues with teachers who had taught me just four years earlier. I met Miss Edna Deitz in the hall one day and she had that same stern look that she had given me when I was a student. My first reaction was to start fumbling for a hall pass.

Joining me as a first year teacher was Gerald Dickens. Gerald and I had been in the same class from first grade at Mt. View through Marsh Fork, Beckley College and Morris Harvey College (Now University of Charleston.) We had also worked part-time jobs together while in college. Gerald was one of the kindest, sensitive, do-anything-for-you people I have ever known. I was very saddened to hear of his death. That faculty was one of the most caring and dedicated I have ever worked with in my thirty-seven years in education. It was a small community and everyone knew everyone else. I remember occasions where Ralph S. “Shelby” Webb, our guidance counselor, would take up a collection among the faculty to send to a student who was having financial problems and needed money for food.

As a student at Marsh Fork, the teachers that influenced me most were Miss Deitz, Doris Webb and Shelby Webb. I was a high school principal in Palm Beach County Florida for nineteen years and I never saw an English teacher that I though was more effective than Mrs. Webb.

I met my wife, Kay Jones, also a Marsh Fork grad, class of ‘56 while teaching at Marsh Fork. We taught there for three years, moving to Florida in the summer of 1965. Marsh Fork was a great school in which to start our career. Now, even in retirement, we still reminisce about those first three years, the people we worked with and the students we taught.

David D. “Dee” Cantley, ‘58

I'll never forget the time Marsh Fork's football team had to play Charleston Catholic --- in Charleston ! Their school was so much larger than ours, with a huge stadium and a crowd to match!

Charleston Catholic didn't have a band, so they wanted to feature our band to perform the pre-game and half-time entertainment. Our band was so small we were a bit "intimidated". So, we told them that "one" of our buses broke down on the way -- the truth was that we only required one bus to transport the band, cheerleaders, equipment, and still had room for supporters !

Shame on us -- lying to those good Catholic people !

Byron "Ron" Cantley. '65

I remember when we had our Sadie Hawkins celebration at MFHS. It was one of the most memorable things that stands out in my mind. I’ll never forget cheering and watching my friends, Billie Jo who sang Dixie Chicks, Andy Clyde who sang Toby Keith and “getting married” at the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Some other special memories was going to all of the basketball games to support the team, Newspaper/Yearbook class with Mrs. Eva Dickens, the Kings Island trip we took with Independence H.S., going to Washington D.C. for Close-Up my Junior year, all of the proms and graduating.

I could go on and on with memories but the most special were by far spending time with my friends…that surpasses everything.

Tamara Rahal (Williams), Class of 2000

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