May 3, 2018
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Jack Canfield, a press spokesman for three governors, will present “1968: Fifty Years Ago in West Virginia” in the Archives and History Library at the Culture Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston on Thursday, May 17, 2018. The program will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
In his informal remarks, Canfield will cover how West Virginia dealt with Vietnam, race relations, strip mining, Chicago riots, Lyndon B. Johnson, strikes, the Silver Bridge disaster, politics, mine explosions, gun control and other topics on a month-by-month basis. His perspective is that of the youngest press secretary in the nation. At the age of 24 in 1968, Canfield served as the press secretary to Governor Hulett C. Smith.
Canfield, an amateur gubernatorial and presidential historian, has helped catalog records of West Virginia governors and is a volunteer for the gubernatorial archive collection at Archives and History. Along with Governor Smith, he was a press spokesman for Governors Jay Rockefeller and Bob Wise. He also was a member of the House of Delegates, commissioner of Employment Security, vice-president of Charleston Area Medical Center and a public relations and advertising executive in Charleston until his retirement in 2015. A member of the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Canfield is a native of Mineral County, a graduate of Potomac State College and West Virginia University, a contributor to the West Virginia Encyclopedia and a civic leader in Charleston.
Patrons may park behind the Culture Center after 5 p.m. on May 17 and enter the building at the rear loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.
For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
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