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WVU President E. Gordon Gee to speak at Boy Scouts leadership dinner

VIENNA — E. Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University, will be the featured speaker at the 47th annual Allohak Council Boy Scouts of America Community Leadership Dinner on March 2.

This year’s dinner will be held at the Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center at 1500 Grand Central Ave. in Vienna.

A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the dinner at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $175 each. Reservations may be made by calling 304-422-4507. A silent auction will be held during the dinner.

All proceeds support the Boy Scout program in the Mid-Ohio Valley, said Dale Musgrave, Scout executive for the Allohak Council.

Corporate tables and sponsorships are available at four levels. Eagle Sponsor is $5,000 and includes two tables of eight, two invitations to a private reception and photo opportunity with Gee, recognition in the program and preferred seating. Life Sponsor is $2,500 and includes one table of eight, two invitations to the private reception and photo op, recognition in the program and preferred seating. Star Sponsor is $1,500 and includes one table of eight, one invitation to the private reception and photo op, recognition in the program and preferred seating. First Class Sponsor is $1,000 and includes one seat at the First Class Sponsor table, one invitation to the private reception and photo op and recognition in the program.

“We are very grateful for the service of our committee and the leadership of 2017 Chairman David McClure (president and CEO of Camden Clark Medical Center),” Musgrave said of the efforts in the community leading up to the March 2 dinner.

The ties between Gee and the Boy Scouts of America are lifelong ones, Musgrave said. As a young man, Gee earned the rank of Eagle Scout and the National Council recognized him with the title of Distinguished Eagle Scout.

Gee is one of America’s most prominent higher education leaders, having helmed universities for more than three decades. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the top 10 university presidents in the United States.

In 2014, Gee returned to WVU, where his career as a university president began. His leadership goals include putting students first, advancing the university’s research agenda, partnering with West Virginia communities and making sure that 1.8 million West Virginians know in their hearts and minds that West Virginia University is their university, according to his biography on the university website.

Born in Vernal, Utah, Gee graduated from the University of Utah with an honors degree in history and earned his J.D. and Ed.D. degrees from Columbia University. He clerked under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before being named a judicial fellow and staff assistant to the U.S. Supreme Court. In this role, he worked for Chief Justice Warren Burger on administrative and legal problems of the court and federal judiciary. Gee returned to Utah as an associate professor and associate dean in the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, and was granted full professorship in 1978.

One year later, he became dean of the WVU College of Law, and, in 1981, was named WVU president. He served in that role until 1985. He went on to lead the University of Colorado (1985-1990), Brown University (1998-2000), and Vanderbilt University (2001-2007). He served as president of The Ohio State University from 1990 to 1997 and again from 2007 to 2013.

Active in national professional and service organizations during his tenures, he has served on the boards for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc., Limited Brands, and the National 4-H Council. In 2011, Gee was appointed to serve as secretary on the Board of Directors of Ohio’s economic development program, JobsOhio.

In 2011-2012, he was asked by Gov. John Kasich to chair both the Ohio Higher Education Capital Funding Collaborative and the Ohio Higher Education Funding Commission. In December 2012, he was asked to serve on the Columbus Education Commission. And in March 2015, he was elected to the board of directors of the American Council on Education, the nation’s largest higher education organization.

Gee has received honorary degrees, awards, fellowships, and recognitions. He is a fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest science organization. In 1994, Gee received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah, as well as from Teachers College of Columbia University. In 2013, he received the ACE Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award and received the Outstanding Academic Leader of the Year Award on behalf of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is the co-author of 11 books, including Law, Policy and Higher Education, published in 2012. He is also the author of numerous papers and articles on law and education.

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