Dwight W. McCormick (1904 - 1977)

From Martha Jane Becker's book "Bramwell - The Diary of a Millionaire Coal Town" we learn that Mr. Dwight McCormick was born in 1904 in Waiteville, Monroe County, West Virginia. His early childhood was spent on the family farm in Waiteville. After graduating from Sweet Springs District High School in Gap Mills,West Virginia, he enrolled in Alderson Baptist Academy at Alderson, WV, where he distinguished himself on a baseball scholorship. He then attended Concord College and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He followed this formal education with post graduate work at Duke University earning a M.A. in School Administration in 1935. Upon graduation from Concord College, he taught three years in McDowell County before coming to Bramwell in 1931. He met his wife to be , Martha Ellwood, also on the Bramwell Faculty, whom he married in 1935 in the Duke University Chapel.

According to Martha Jane Becker's book, if you ask Mr. McCormick what his accomplishments were as principal of Bramwell High School that made him most proud....he would probably name the many changes that tool place during his admisistration. He would no doubt give credit to his many students, his faculty and the great community spirit. Dwight McCormick loved Bramwell High School and the town of Bramwell and believed in the people. He served several terms as mayor of Bramwell. He is remembered and admired by thousands of his former students for his outstanding administrative leadership while principal of Bramwell High School.

Mr. McCormick retired in 1968, following a massive heart attack. After his partial recovery, he spent the next three years directing a reading program at Bluefield State College where he was also seeking financial aid for the college. In August 1976 he and his wife left Bramwell to live in Houston, Texas with their daughter. Dwight W. McCormick died June 1, 1977. He is buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bluewell, WV.

( Birth/Death records confirmed through Social Security Death Index. )

Ada B. Whitmore (9 Feb. 1891 - Sep. 1976 )

Once again from Martha Jane Becker's book on historic Bramwell, Miss. Ada Blair Whitmore was teaching at Bramwell in 1933 when the orignal Bramwell High school was destroyed by fire. It is recorded that her salary for 1931 was $1080.00. Miss Whitmore received her B.A. degree from William and Mary College and her masters degree was received from the University of Virginia. She taught English and Social Studies at Bramwell for about forty years with a heavy emphasis on "English". She is known as possibably the best teacher to have taught at Bramwell High School in the first one hundred years. Her students remember her as stressing dicipline in the classroom. She demanded the most from every student and did a wonderful job in preparing her students for college. Miss Whitmore left Bramwell after the 1977 school year and it is believed that she taught in Virginia school for several more years before retiring. Following her retirement in the early 1970s she resided in Staunton, Virginia where she died in September, 1976.

( Birth/Death records confirmed through Social Security Death Index. )