1965

Sometimes humans travel in opposite directions while trying to reach the same goal. Growing up in a small coal-mining town, I assumed there was only one path to success: work hard, go to the best college possible, and plan on a life somewhere other than the isolated hills of southern West Virginia. On the other hand, our classmate Bob Schwartz, not a West Virginian, eventually sought happiness in the same area I left.

Bob was raised in Rockville Centre, a relatively prosperous part of greater New York City. His father had "worked his way off the streets" to a successful career as a CPA. Bob says the choice of Dartmouth was not difficult since "everyone in my neighborhood was going there." Once in Hanover, he capitalized on his writing talent to become a successful English major. Bob earned a master's degree from Wesleyan University and served in the Peace Corps in Iran. Although he experienced some "culture shock" when he returned to the complexities of American life, Bob settled into work as an editor for Prentice-Hall in New Jersey.

He says his position at the publishing house left him feeling "like a little person in a little job." He wanted to try his hand at writing for a newspaper, but discovered good opportunities required previous experience in journalism and perhaps a little more exposure to life. In the midst of his frustration, he visited college friends of his wife who had "dropped out" and were living as subsistence farmers in rural West Virginia. Bob and his wife were attracted to the simpler life style and moved to the Mountain State in 1973. In a 1980 class newsletter he said, "We garden extensively, raising almost all our own fruits, vegetables, and nuts. We keep a flock of chickens for eggs, and a goat for milk. We grind our own flour, bake bread, make cheese, make wine, and press apples for cider and vinegar. It is a very active and physical life." Bob also found his religious faith strengthening in the unique West Virginia environment; he became a part of a small, isolated Jewish community and felt a stronger sense of identity than he had ever known. In spite of many pleasant times, the period ended with the difficult process of a divorce and the return of Bob's two daughters and their mother to Long Island. After 12 years, Bob found himself armed with all sorts of experience but now badly in need of regular income.

He began work as a reporter for the Lincoln County Journal, a weekly newspaper serving Hamlin, a community of fewer than 2,000 persons. As one-half of the total writing staff of the newspaper, Bob says he had a job he loved and an opportunity for "an apprenticeship I should have served 20 years ago." Three years later, he moved on to the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest newspaper. He describes himself professionally as an "observer of people" who feels at home in a variety of situations. In a recent week, his diverse writing assignments included the national American Legion commander, an agency having problems in providing meals to senior citizens, and an upcoming performance by a wind ensemble. The editor of the Gazette, Donald Marsh, describes Bob as "a very versatile and hardworking reporter who fits in well with both our operation and the State of West Virginia. " Bob finds his adopted home to be "a fascinating place-very different from the world I once knew. I'm now neither New Yorker nor West Virginian, but I believe I've finally been able to find the balance I was seeking for so many years."

Perhaps all of us, including one former West Virginian, have something to learn from Bob's experience: where we go in life is not as important as the process we go through in getting there.

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