Lawson W. Hamilton, Jr.

Lawson W. Hamilton Jr. started classes at Morris Harvey - now University of Charleston - before being called to serve in World War II in 1941. He was assigned to a combat engineering company and served three years in the European Theater of Operations. After returning home, Hamilton and his father Lawson W. Hamilton, Sr. founded Hamilton Coal Company and opened a small punch mine at the head of Blue Creek near Blakely in Kanawha County. By 1951, Hamilton combined Hamilton Coal Company with Ford Coal Company, which operated numerous small surface mines throughout West Virginia. Hamilton served on several boards, panels and commissions including the Duke Children's Medical Center. Children's Advisory Board, West Virginia Kids Count Fund (appointed by Governor Gaston Caperton), Boy Scouts of America. Buckskin Council #617, Carnegie Hall Board, 1988 "Spirit of the Valley" award, 1996 recipient of the outstanding West Virginia Philanthropist of the Year Award 1992, Inducted into the University of Charleston's Alumni Gallery of Achievement and received an Honorary Doctorate from Davis & Elkins College.