We certainly wish we could highlight each and every individual who’s doing something special in the Upper Ohio Valley, but we do our best, that’s for sure, and our efforts will continue in 2025.
And in 2024, we highlighted more than 100 folks who make the area a far better place to live in their own special way, and the group highlighted in this end-of-year feature are great examples of just that. Maybe they sing or follow their passion or overcome adversity or create culinary greatness or, quite simply, maybe they’ve finally accepted who they are and what they do best.
Whatever the case, be thankful for them and many others.
Far From Fiction
It’s how he grew up and it’s where he finds his purpose, so where else would a man named John Dutton wish to spend most of his time?
Dutton tells a story about finding the love of his life, his bride Rita, and how they sculpted not only a former strip mine into a 1,200-acre cattle farm, but also how they raised their three boys and a daughter on the land where they could learn the ways of nature while becoming a medical specialist, a public official, a master marketer, and a crafty architect.
His story is about family – the real Dutton family – and about leaving something behind for the future to appreciate and to admire.
Please meet Mr. John Dutton.
Bottom to Top
He was a kid who needed to get a job, but not to buy his own bubble gum or trading cards.
Rod Haley wanted to help his mom and dad have a better life, and for decades since the Wheeling native has been doing much the same for us on his beloved hilltop most known as Oglebay Park. Haley began his hospitality career on the bottom rung, and he worked, and studied, and worked some more to become one of the decision-makers for the best municipal park in the United States.
Rod could have left – headhunters have come a-calling more than once – but Wheeling is his home, and that’s why he was proud to give us a tour of his climb up that ladder.
Ladies and gentlemen admire the determination of former golf caddy Rod Haley.
Mrs. Mom with a Message
Quirky.
That’s a good term for her. Quirky, meaning against the same grain most fall in line with because normal is welcomed and different doesn’t always fit.
Quirky, but never on purpose. No, Kaydon Board just feels and follows a different beat on the way to the words for her next song about what it is she’s experiencing as a wife, a mom, a daughter, and as a singer/songwriter who’s trying to tell a story she doesn’t ever want to end.
That’s why there’s only one answer to the question posed by this story’s headline, and that solution rests with Kaydon’s next refrain.
Go ahead, hum a few bars with Mrs. Board.
A Twang with a Twist
Matt VanFossen can sing. Really sing.
The man can sing so well that he won the Josie Award for Best Country Male, the annual honor for the most talented man who sings country music but has not yet signed with a label. He’s hoping that changes soon, and if it doesn’t happen today, it should have because, yes, Matt VanFossen can really, really sing.
VanFossen, though, has come and gone from the region’s music scene, and his game of hide-and-seek has been propelled by a private life that’s been nothing short of a horrifying roller coaster ride. There have been challenges with family, with his personal life, and with his own refusal to be the gay man in public that he’s been his entire life.
While his sexuality was accepted by his late mother, his father had issues with it, and VanFossen always believed country music fans would, too. So, he hid it, and, at times, he disappeared.
But no more, so, now you can meet the real Matt VanFossen.
Controlling Crohn’s
Sounds just silly, doesn’t it?
But there were times when Brett Phillips couldn’t stay on a football field, and it didn’t matter if it was fourth-and-one on the goal line … and it was everything BUT silly.
Phillips definitely deserved all the headlines as the senior quarterback of the Wheeling Park Patriots, and he went off to Frostburg State to take his quarterbacking career to the next level. But Crohn’s took control, and yes, that means chronic diarrhea. Off the field. On the field. Under center. Whenever.
But Brett battled back, and this past Fall he returned to live action as Bethany’s freshman quarterback, and the 6-1 righthander was 175 of 305 pass attempts for 2,042 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Although the Bison were just 1-9, Phillips was named the Presidents’ Athletics Conference “Newcomer of the Week” a couple of times, and was an Honor Mention pick on the All-Pac Team, too.
And yes, he’ll explain his path back to the field to anyone who needs directions.
He Does It His Way
One of Chef Rocco Basil’s most favorite ventures is to enjoy appetizers at a number of different eateries with his eyebrows raised and his favorite lady, Amanda, on his arm.
One after another and always different “Scooby Snacks” with every stop … and he’s beginning to envision the potential coming together in downtown Wheeling as the $32 million streetscape comes to closer and closer to completion.
The “this-here-that-there” mindset, Chef Rocco insists, will make each step between restaurants worth every step. Wings, meatballs, quesadillas, and mussels should be included, and who knows what will be created by our culinary creators while Triton Construction finishes and tidies up in 2025.
Bon appetite!
