[Abstracted from "A History of Mountaineer Woodturners – The First Ten Years". Our thanks to J.G.Keeler and Galaxy Press]
Nineteen Eighty Eight was a good year for woodturning in West Virginia. It was in 1988 that four men collaborated to bring Mountaineer Woodturners into existence. The four were Charlie Brown, Bob Fleming, Palmer Sharpless, and Tim Pyles. It all happened like this:
Charlie Brown was a woodturner from Huntington, WV who turned semi-professionally, exhibiting and selling at local fairs. He had, as well, developed a unique tapered screw chuck for holding wood on a lathe. Bob Fleming was a woodturner from Charleston, some fifty miles from Huntington, who had ordered one of Mr. Brown’s screw chucks. On a visit to Charleston for other matters, Brown personally delivered the chuck to Fleming. That’s how they met. It was to be the first of many meetings and the beginning of what we celebrate twelve years hence.
They sat in Fleming’s shop, and while inspecting the neatness and orderliness of same (according to Fleming, although no one will believe it!), discovered that both were members of the two year old American Association of Woodturners (AAW). They had an interest in exploring the formation of a chapter of the AAW in West Virginia, and were also acquainted with a man named Palmer Sharpless.
Palmer Sharpless was a well-known woodturner and teacher of the craft from Newtown, PA. He was a member of the Board of Directors of AAW and Chairman of its Local Chapters Committee. It was his purpose to recruit and nurture new chapters. Fleming and Brown were aware that Mr. Sharpless was scheduled to conduct a woodturning workshop at Cedar Lakes, an Arts and Crafts Facility and Conference Center near Ripley, WV. Since Fleming was better acquainted with Sharpless, he arranged a meeting between Charlie Brown and Palmer Sharpless. A third gentleman, Tim Pyles, joined them.
Tim Pyles was the Crafts Coordinator at Cedar Lakes, and as such, was interested in promoting the facility as a learning center and a place from which this craft could propagate throughout the State. Thus a marriage was consummated. Mr. Sharpless offered help to get them started and provided a list of AWW members in the area; Mr. Pyles arranged for the Craft Center as a meeting site, and Brown and Fleming used the list to convene a July meeting of area woodturners at Cedar Lakes. They met in its library with Mr. Sharpless present, talked about their work and of their ambitions and brought samples of their turnings. This was their first "Show and Tell".
Over the coming months Mr. Pyles continued to encourage and support the group, acquiring additional lathes for the Craft House and scheduling a number of prominent practitioners of the craft to demonstrate at Cedar Lakes, deepening the interest of the original group and stimulating others to take it up. These artists included Al Stirt, Bonnie Kline, and Del Stubbs. Mr. Sharpless continues to provide support through the present day.
In October of 1988 the fledgling group met again at Cedar Lakes to have another "show and tell’, view a videotape on bowl turning, and conduct a business meeting. They put on paper the expected benefits of forming a woodturning club:
"Getting to know other turners, sharing tips, techniques and sources of supply, learning from guest experts and from videos of nationally known turners at work. Some meetings would also provide hands-on experience".
A group met again in November, not necessarily the same group that previously met, as a club was now forming, adding and dropping and approaching its goal of becoming an AAW chapter. At this meeting it elected officers, named the organization, established yearly dues, set a schedule for regular meetings, and selected a base of operations. The group was named Mountaineer Woodturners. Its officers were: President, Charles Brown; Vice President, David Wentz; Secretary-Treasurer, Robert Fleming. Dues were set at $12 annually and the group was to meet six times a year at Cedar Lakes Craft House. They also identified programs for future meetings that included demonstrations by Bob Fleming, Charlie Brown, and Davis Wentz.
Shortly thereafter a letter was addressed to Mountaineer Woodturners from Mr. Sharpless informing that its charter application had been approved by the AAW Board of Directors and welcoming the organization as an official Chapter of the American Association of Woodturners. A note on the letter indicated the application was accepted on December 13, 1988. Charter members are: Charlie Brown, Bob Fleming, David Wentz, Tom Lynch, Tom McColly, Jerry Vaillancourt, Paul Rhudy, and Jim McGinley.
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