Marshall Magazine Summer 2022

Green ever

and master’s degrees in soci ology. Upon graduation, he began teaching as a sociol ogy instructor at Marshall. However, he felt the pull to do something different and to make a positive change in his community. An avid fan of consum ing different types of beers from around the world and visiting breweries across the country, McKay was struck by an idea in 2012 while vis iting a brewery in Vermont. As he watched communi ties transform and thrive around craft beer breweries, he had the idea to try some thing similar inHuntington. Within a few weeks of that trip, McKay was introduced

organizes the popular Rails and Ales Festival and the Wild andWonderfulWinter Beer Festival inHuntington. Also in 2013, he opened the Tap House, which would later be known by its cur rent name, Summit Beer Station. Recently, Summit Beer Station was named one of the top 50 craft beer bars in the United States by the Brewers Association. McKay has now turned his focus toward politics to work on changing many of West Virginia’s laws that he feels hold back the service and beverage industries. With the help of many oth ers, he successfully over hauled nearly all of West

200 ALUMNI, DEANS AND OTHER MARSHALL SUPPORTERS GATHERED TO HONOR REMARKABLE

MEMBERS OF THE MARSHALL FAMILY.

to a 250-square-foot storefront in Heritage Station that would later become Huntington’s very first craft beer bar. In 2013, he helped form the Better Beer Coalition, which

Virginia’s codes relating to these industries in 2021 and helped ease the burdens of businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

At the 83rd Annual Alumni Awards Banquet, the Alumni Association Board of Directors (pictured) welcomed nearly 200 guests to the Brad D. Smith Foundation Hall to honor remarkable members of the Marshall family.

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