WHEELING — No person has been a larger benefactor to West Liberty University than Gary West, something the university itself stated when it announced it would name its football stadium after the man it called WLU’s “all-time biggest donor.”
Yet those who knew West – who died Sunday at his Naples, Florida, home at age 86 – said his contributions to the region reached far more than just one university. Oglebay Park and other groups felt West’s influence and philanthropy.
West and G. Randolph Worls, former president and CEO of the Wheeling Park Commission, first became friends and golfing partners at Oglebay when they were teenagers.
“Gary has been a long-time friend since high school,” Worls said. “I’ve watched with interest Gary’s career as he built an outstanding business that spanned 17 states.
“He was not only an outstanding businessman, but an outstanding philanthropist. He donated heavily to the community, particularly to Oglebay and West Liberty University. He will be missed.”
According to his biography curated for his induction into the Wheeling Hall of Fame in 2008, during high school and college, West had part-time jobs at the 12th Street. Garage and Goodyear Tire and Rubber to pay his college expenses. After graduating with a degree in business administration from the former West Liberty State College, he worked for 13 years for Goodyear at various positions in Wheeling, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut.
In 1970, he purchased Valley Welding Supply Company with personal pension funds and additional funding from two partners.
With the experience he gained working for Goodyear, and with the help from “good banks and great accountants,” West and Valley Welding went on to acquire many locations in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In February of 2007, Valley Welding was sold to a private equity firm for $316 million.
Worls added that West and his wife, Flip West, always worked well together as a team. In 2021, the WLU Foundation presented its first-ever Lifetime Impact of Philanthropy Award to the Wests. Both are WLU alumni.
The Gary E. West College of Business at WLU bears West’s name in recognition of his major gift to the West College of Business Scholarship Program. The Wests also contributed to construction of the West Family Stadium and the West Family Athletic Complex, and established the Guy H. and Mary Ann West School of Business Scholarship Endowment at WLU.
“The university today mourns the passing of Gary E. West and offers condolences to his family and friends,” said Tim Borchers, new president of West Liberty University. “I never had the pleasure of meeting Gary, but I understand he was humble, gracious, and that he cared deeply about West Liberty.
“Gary was the most generous benefactor in the history of West Liberty University. We are profoundly grateful for the contributions that he and his wife Flip made to support West Liberty.”
He noted that the future Appalachian Aquatic Conservation Center at WLU announced last week will use both land and a building donated by the Wests.
“His support for our university will continue to transform the education of our students for years to come and we are deeply thankful,” Borchers said.
West grew up living close to Oglebay Park, and he told The Intelligencer in 2017 he often rode a horse through the park grounds. He has recounted that he and his wife met in 1956 while ice skating at Oglebay Park’s Schenk Lake.
Among many other projects, West financed the renovation of what is now named the “West Wing” at Wilson Lodge there, and also funded the creation of the West Spa in the facility.
Herb Faulkenberry, vice president of sales and marketing for Oglebay Park, said park officials had just learned of West’s passing Tuesday afternoon.
“He has been a tremendous friend of the park forever,” Faulkenberry said. “He was a wonderful partner in so many projects. He will be greatly missed.”
West also was a longtime member of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, the Wheeling Rotary, and the Upper Ohio Valley Construction Employers Council, as well as a board member of many local businesses.
West was inducted into the West Virginia Business Hall of Fame at West Virginia University in 2006. He became a member of WLU’s Alumni Wall of Honor in 1993.
A funeral service and a celebration of West’s life are pending and will be announced at a later date.
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