Dear Denny:
You have been proper with informing your family, your board, and your employees about your retirement, but you have said very little publicly. In fact, most of the people reading this right now are learning about it for the very first time.
But we know why you are keeping it so quiet. You know we want to celebrate you. We want to tell you as many times as possible what a wonderful job you have done through the years. We want to stroll down memory lane about Foreigner and Night Ranger and The Doobie Brothers and talk to you about the Toughman and the Nailers and the time a flood destroyed that orange basketball court.
We want to thank you. Thank you for taking care of us when we were kids. Thank you for taking care of our kids. Thank you for pushing for professional hockey in Wheeling. Thank you for not taking off to an amphitheater somewhere when the venue takeover took place in the 1990s. And thank you for guiding the façade facelift and interior improvements project in 2014, for working with a plethora of promoters and road managers working with the rental shows since 1986, and for working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau on the operation of the Capitol Theatre.
“And now it’s time for me to retire,” Magruder said this week. “I prayed on it some this winter, and I came to the conclusion that October 1 will be my final day as the general manager of Wesbanco Arena. I will get us through this new ice project because this team and this ice are very special to me and have been for the past 30 years. We, as a team, brought professional hockey to Wheeling, and for it to still be here says a lot about the commitment we have had here in Wheeling.
“I want to see it through to the new ice,” he said. “But I am 74 years old, I will have 36.5 years in when I retire, and it’s time to spend more time with my wife and to pursue some other dreams that I have,” he explained. “To me, it’s no big deal. It’s just time for me to step aside. It’s been a hell of a ride, and it’ll end with the new ice.”
Now let’s see what the kids on the Council can do.
Sincerely,
Civic Center Faithful
