Look Back: Excerpts from Chancellor memories conclude
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"In the spring of 1918 I had a severe case of the dreaded Spanish Flu and was out of school for many weeks. This put me back one semester in high school and, instead of graduating with my class in the Spring of 1921, I graduated at mid-year in January 1922. After graduation I began working at the shoe store full time and when Fall came, I wasn't really too keen about going off to college. My dad sensed too that I was not ready for college as I had not made up my mind what profession or what line of work I wanted to pursue. Pop told me if I wished to stay out of college for the coming term he would take me with him on a business trip to the West Coast in the summer of 1923 and then I could enter college that Fall. This seemed like a good proposition to me so I continued to work at the shoe store full time until about the middle of June 1923, and saved about $145 and we took off by train soon afterwards.
"That trip to the West Coast took about two months and certainly was one of the highest of highlights in my life up to this day. Incidentally, Pop had taken Mother on the same trip the summer before. At this time, Dad was general sales manager for the Baldwin Tool Works of Parkersburg and all they manufactured were hand shovels and scoops. They sold their products mostly to the wholesale hardware and mill supply houses and it was not uncommon to take orders for one, two or more carloads at a time from these distributors.
[Though it wasn't college, Norvell's trip west with his father was certainly educational, as they did business in practically every state and large city West of the Mississippi, even spending time in Mexico. What an experience for a twenty-one-year-old!]
"On my trip West I was greatly impressed with the huge and beautiful apple orchards I had seen in Oregon and Washington so, I too, decided to major in Horticulture at the [WV] University. [One of his brothers was also a Horticulture major.] Pop was highly pleased at this for, at that time he owned an interest in an orchard company in Eastern West Virginia in Berkeley County."
Norvell did very well during his four years at WVU, scholastically as well as socially. As a manager for the WVU football team he was a part of the team that beat the University of Pittsburg when "Pop" Warner was Pitt's coach.
Eventually following his father's business as a representative for a tool distributor, Norvell ended his successful career in California with his wife and family, where he passed in 1993. The 40-page story of his life was written in 1979, and while as yet not ready for sale, it can be read and "checked out" at the Phelps-Tavenner Research Center on Camden Avenue in South Parkersburg.
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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.