Published: July 02, 2009 10:06 pm      

Popular Marsh Fork High School reunion nears

From its creation in 1925 to devastating fires to its closure in 2003, Marsh Fork High School generated a lot of history.

The newest chapter is its upcoming reunion July 17-18, open to anyone who either attended Marsh Fork High School or graduated from there.

The reunion opens July 17 at 6 p.m. with a social and cocktail buffet at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. A dinner and social are planned the next day at the same location at 7 p.m. The cost per person is $50 for both days.

“It’s quite a big event,” said Dan Harless, a 1954 alumnus now living in Georgia. “Last year I’d say around 400 people attended.”

Harless says the event is not only about meeting with former schoolmates, but about the sharing of a common era.

“It’s a gathering of old and new friends and sharing a personal history with each other,” he said. “It’s an era that will never happen again.”

Marsh Fork High School opened 1925 as the two-room Montcoal High School. In 1930, the school reached its first milestone, graduating seven students. Two years later, the school became known as Marsh Fork.

The building suffered two fires — one in 1943 and the other in 2005, just two years after the school was closed.

Last year, Marsh Fork alumna Gracie Stover Golden established a Web site to keep the history of Marsh Fork and its history alive. The site posts annuals of past years, old pictures, information from various time periods and a history of the school.

“I started putting up pictures on the site and old annuals of Marsh Fork and then it just went from there,” she said. “It’s important to preserve your history, because like my hometown of Packsville, it’s completely gone.”

Golden, who now lives in Kansas, graduated in 1966 and says Marsh Fork helped her become who she is today.

“Your high school is an important part of your past,” she said. “People I knew back then have helped me make connections today. It really brings people together in that way.”

To this day, she says, she is amazed by the close-knit community that resulted from the school.

“What I think is amazing is how some of these people didn’t know each other when they went to school, but now they’re close like family,” she said.

After Saturday’s reunion dinner, class pictures will be taken, beginning with the earliest class present.

Those who want to attend the events must be registered; no walk-ins permitted. For a registration form, see the school’s Web site at http://marshfork. com/newreunion.htm. Links to yearbooks, memories and other information available at http://www.marshfork.com/.