Committed businesses – and one caring clergyman – celebrated at Marion Chamber dinner
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FAIRMONT - The Rev. Richard Bowyer had to laugh at the sincere subterfuge.
"Yeah, everybody kept saying, 'You oughta go to that dinner,'" the longtime Fairmont clergyman recounted, with a chuckle. "Well, I listened. And this is what happened."
Wednesday's 72nd Annual Marion County Chamber of Commerce Dinner in Fairmont was the occasion to which he's referring.
It's been around for exactly how long Bowyer has been preaching in churches.
The Huntington native and Duke Divinity School graduate delivered his first sermons in 1953, in and around Wayne County.
Pulpit postings brought him to north-central West Virginia in 1968, where he's been ever since.
He was still down South earlier in that watershed year, earning a second degree from Duke while on the front lines of the civil rights movement, when news crackled across his car radio, telling him Dr. Martin Luther King was dead.
Bowyer hadn't been here in these climes all that long when the Farmington No. 9 Mine blew, killing 78 miners while entombing 19.
He immediately began ministering to the families of the victims.
The clergyman began preaching for safety reforms before the coal dust settled - and his social justice sermons haven't stopped, all these years later.
Even if he is 91 and still on the mend from a recent heart attack.
"The Rev. Bowyer has been such a resource," Chamber President Dani DeVito said.
"He's just got this spiritual calm about him. When it came for this award, there was no question."
Bowyer was recognized with the chamber's inaugural D.D. Meighen Humanity in Action Award.
The offering is named in honor of the fellow preacher and community activist who was mentored by Bowyer, in turn, when he was a young divinity student in Ohio.
Meighen died last year after a battle with cancer.
DeVito appreciates Meighen's legacy, she said. She appreciated his reinvention, too.
In the early 2000s, Meighen pivoted and founded his own cable access channel in the county, TV19 - or "DDTV," as it would come to be affectionately known.
DDTV brought you Fairmont City Council doings, Marion County Commission coverage and other roundtables and events of note.
In turn, Bowyer was out there, too, lending his voice and his sermons to the full cloth of community causes.
Faith meets perseverance, DeVito said.
Which, she said, also applies to the entrepreneurs, educators and retailers showcased during the evening at Fairmont State University's Falcon Center.
Other honorees:
President's Award - Dr. Budd Sapp
Chairwoman's Award - Tony Merandino
Small Business of the Year - Small Town Impressions
Small Business Legacy Award - Adam's Office Supply
Community Impact Award - Fairmont Farmers Market
Educator of the Year - Heather Yoho, a math teacher at Mannington Middle
Creative and Cultural Impact Award - Movements in Dance studio.
"These are the people and businesses who are bringing Marion County back," DeVito said.