by Rick Eades

Another example of PHS Class of 1974 stories

His Honor, Judge Mark Wills, whose public services have included not just the WV Senate and House, but 3 decades of serving the Salvation Army Board and now nearing 2 decades doing the same for Princeton Community Hospital. Mark’s incredible paper routes were legendary, from bike to track, to cash to be Best Dressed…. his work ethic and service to Princeton and all has “delivered” success.

Cheers,

Rick

by Gerry Legere

Mark reached out to me when after our class reunion by getting my phone number from Greg Foster. And I am so thankful for that. We didn’t get to talk much at the reunion, so we were going to make up for that missed time.

I, in turn, decided to reach out to Mark to help fill in some of the blanks to lingering questions I had. Thanks to Rick Eades and some other public information anyone can find online, I wanted to know how all of this began – what was it like growing up in Princeton? Who did he look up to or inspired him? When did this interest in law school begin? Did he need to run for re-election as a Judge?

If you know Mark at all, you know how humble he is as well as having a great sense of humor. I told him I would love to include his bio on the website. His initial response was he did not think anyone would be interested.

    Here is Mark, in his own words:

“That is neat however I don’t think anyone would be interested in my bio.

I didn’t make it very far from home. I live one street over from where I grew up.

I did start selling newspapers when I was 5 years old on Mercer Street. The sunset news. I kept a paper route until I graduated from Concord college at age 21 so I carried newspapers for 16 years. I also bagged groceries at Kroger’s while I was attending college.

Graduated in three years by going to summer school and carrying extra hours because I wanted to go to law school. As long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a lawyer. I really don’t know why however that’s all I ever wanted to do.

My dad was a mailman, and was a very hard worker. He was very honest and had the most influence of my life.

I practiced law for 36 years and have been judge the last 8 years. I lived in Beijing China in 2007 and 2008 working for a company out of Pittsburgh who built coal preparation plants in China. I commuted back-and-forth every six weeks and was able to keep my law practice going at the same time.”

Did you have to run for re-election to the bench?

“I did but I was unopposed. So I have another 8 years as long as my health holds out.”

That is Mark Wills. Continuing to serve the very community and people he grew up with and has always loved.