Things don’t begin and end with Barney Fife at Morgantown High School.
Or rather, Don Knotts (Class of 1942), the comedic actor who won five Emmys for his portrayal of the aforementioned bumbling character on the Andy Griffith television show in the 1960s.
And he isn’t the only one to achieve in his field after going forth from the red-bricked school on Wilson Avenue.
His is among the names adorning the Distinguished Alumni Wall in the main hallway honoring graduates who made their names in science, human outreach, the arts, business and medicine.
Another trio of top-acheivers is about to be added to the wall. The 2026 inductees are Robert DeProspero, Steve Saffel and Simon Wildman.
Here’s a look at their professional lives and times:
As a ranking member of the Secret Service, DeProspero, who graduated from Morgantown High in 1956, helped protect Presidents Johnson, Ford, Carter and Reagan in his 20-year career with the elite security force.
He signed on with the Secret Service in 1965, working a detail for President Eisenhower, then out of office.
Up until then, he was a teacher and coach in public schools in the Washington, D.C., area, where he landed after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from West Virginia University.
Several of his students had fathers who worked in the Secret Service. The parents were impressed and encouraged him to apply.
The MHS product completely revamped the organization’s security protocols after President Reagan was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in 1981 – with many of those measures still in use today.
DeProspero died in 2019 at his home in Arizona. He was 80.
Steve Saffel received Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award in 2022.
Saffel, who made his name in publishing as a top editor in demand, discovered his love for words and narratives at MHS, where he wrote for the Red & Blue Journal and Quill & Scroll.
After graduating with degrees in journalism and English from WVU, he embarked on a career that took him from Random House to Marvel Comics – and on editing collaborations with authors as diverse as Stan Lee and Nikki Giovanni.
The editor with the MHS diploma also helped open the door to San Diego’s famed Comic-Con International gathering to mainstream publishing houses seeking new genres and authors.
Saffel is on the faculty of the Pike’s Peak Writers Conference and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
He also works with authors daily through his company, D.E.O Editorial Services
Simon Wildman
Wildman didn’t stray too far from the music he began performing seriously at MHS. The 2004 graduate was a tuba section leader and first-chair member of the Jazz and Wind ensembles at his high school alma mater.
In the military, the gunnery sergeant did double-duty as a member of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, performing in venues and concert halls from Michigan to Germany.
He holds degrees from WVU, Ohio State University and the University of Georgia.
Wildman is currently an adjunct professor at Shepherd University and teaches students in Washington, D.C., as a volunteer with the national Music in Schools program.
