Marshall Magazine Spring 2022

class notes

IN MEMORIAM

the university’s Campaign for National Prominence. He received the MUAA’s Distinguished Service Award and with his wife, Verna K. LeMasters Gibson, is represented on the Pathway of Prominence on the Huntington campus. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity; a past board member of the Girls and Boys Club of Sarasota, Florida, and Huntington, West Virginia; a supporter of Hospice of Huntington; and a member of the Episcopal Church. He was also a member of Community Lodge #684 in Columbus, Ohio, for 44 years. His early career was in sales management and then as an investor in small businesses.

Pariss M. Coleman I (B.A. ’68) died Aug. 2, 2021. He had a long career in the Toledo, Ohio, public schools, serving as a physical education teacher, coach of football and track, assistant principal and principal before retir ing in 1998. At Marshall, he had a football scholarship and played for Coach Charlie Snyder. He was also on the track team. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. fraternity, and remained active in its Toledo alumni associa tion. After he retired, he and his wife served as marriage counselors at their church and he sang in a local commu nity chorus. Walter Louis “Walt” Garnett (’70), who played on a baseball scholarship at Marshall under prominent baseball coach Jack Cook, died Oct. 5, 2021, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was inducted into the Marshall Hall of Fame and was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He was a co owner of the Wild Wing Café in Myrtle Beach.

Dr. Robert W. Paskel (M.A. ’62) died Dec. 26, 2021, in Winchester, Virginia. He taught and served in administrative roles in four school systems and a state system in three different states after earning an M.A. from Marshall. Dr. Michael “Bryan” Reynolds (B.S. ’78) died Jan. 7, 2022. A resident of Brooksville, Florida, he had

James E. Gibson (’62) died July 2, 2021, at his home in Sarasota, Florida. A life time member of MUAA, he served on its board, as well as the boards of the Society of Yeager Scholars and the Marshall University Foundation Inc., as well as vice chair of

Robert Paskel

practiced osteopathic medicine since 1985, including 10 years in St. Albans, West Virginia, as well as in Ohio, Texas and Florida. He was a member of the American Osteopathic Association, the Pinellas County Osteopathic Society and the local Marshall alumni chapter.

James and Verna Gibson

Marshall University honors alumnus Ted Wilson with memorial bench outside Memorial Student Center Plaza

T he Marshall University alumni family lost a dear friend last year with the passing of Theodore “Ted” Wilson. Wilson, a longtime member of the Marshall

Memorial Golf Tournament, which raised more than $100,000 for Marshall University student-athletes through the years. Wilson made it a

University Alumni Association Board of Directors and a Big Green member, died peacefully on Aug. 10, 2021, in Huntington, West Virginia, at the age of 75. In addi t ion to being an avid supporter of Marshall and Thundering Herd athletics, Wilson is perhaps best known for his involvement and leader ship of the Marcelo Lajterman

goal to ensure that those lost in the Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash were not forgotten. Prior to the 2021 Memorial Fountain Ceremony, Wilson was honored by the university with a memorial bench on the Huntington campus located just outside the Memorial Student Center Plaza.

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