Decision to Name Center A Natural One

Condensed from an article by Chris Stadelman, The Parsons Advocate: Harold Walters was the first park naturalist in West Virginia. He was honored at the 50^th. Anniversary of Blackwater Lodge in June, at the age of 88.  He always started his lectures, with a welcome to Blackwarter Falls State Park. Harold now lived in Keyser, West Virginia, with his wife Edie. His grandfather was among the first settlers to the Davis area. He graduated at the top of his class from Davis high School in 1939. He attended Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in  World War II. He returned to the Davis, West Virginia area in 1955, teaching 1 year in Parsons, then at Mountaineer High School until 1972. At the state park, he made $5 a day running the souvenir shop, then led hikes, beginning in 1958, to the beaver dam, Blackwater Canyon, and Fairfax Stone. He also presented lectures, films and slide shows. On Saturday nights he did the squar dancing. In the 1960s, he coached Little League. The park now has six full-time naturalists and 15 more in the summer. In 1972, Harold and Edie moved to Keyser, where he taught at Keyser High School and Potomac College, until he retired. He still remained active in church and community service in Keyser, and recently suffered a broken arm and other minor abrasions while working at the Food Bank. He and Edie have three children: Sherry Fox and Bob Walters of Morgantown, and Jack Walters, Altanta, GA.

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