MU Summer 2024
It was 1998. I was a senior at Kent State University, near my hometown in northeastern Ohio, and I had come to Huntington to interview for a job as a reporter at “The Herald-Dispatch.” The editor at the time, Bob Gabordi, was showing me around town. He motioned to a fire hydrant, which was painted green and white.
“That’s green for Marshall University,” he told me. “That tells you a little something about how important Marshall is to Huntington, when the fire hydrants are painted green.”
I never verified that fact. There was no need. I accepted the job, moved to Huntington and have spent the past 26 years growing to love this area and its people, and observing evidence that verifies Marshall’s role as the heartbeat of not only the surrounding region, but a much broader community. A community we know and love as the Herd.
Each member of the Herd has his or her own reasons for loving Marshall. Beyond its central function of providing education, the university gives us important work to do. It gives us support. It gives us opportunities. It gives us fun. It gives us family.
A lot of places say that they’ll do those things. Marshall delivers.
It’s given me opportunities, too, and as a first-time editor of “Marshall Magazine,” I want to give you a heads-up about what you’re going to find in this issue that might be a little different. This magazine has a wonderful history of featuring the amazing stories, developments and people who make Marshall great. We aim to continue that tradition, this time by giving you a closer look at what Marshall For All, Marshall Forever means to those in this new program after its first year. This issue will also give you some perspective on how the new Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation is changing the game for students and faculty in our Lewis College of Business.
But you’ll also find that we’re zooming in a little bit differently. We plan to show you some faces from our Marshall family who might not necessarily have done anything recently to make the headlines. They’re just out there being amazing — working hard every day, using their talents and making life better for the people within their sphere and impactful ripples that they might not even realize. We have so many remarkable people in this Marshall family of ours. There is no possible way to showcase them all, but watch us try. We start with this issue, highlighting just a handful of students, employees and alumni who make us proud and make us smile. You’ll see why.
We also plan to time-travel and share some Marshall history in each issue, starting this time with a look at Laidley Hall, a residence hall that we bid farewell to this year as the hands of time keep ticking. You know some fun times were had there. We hope this brings some happy memories to the surface for those who lived there and reminds others that Marshall has been a long, beautiful story for which we’re writing the newest chapters.
We also look forward to celebrating Marshall moments. We’ll share some of ours that have been captured in photos, and we ask you to send us some of yours. Each issue will feature a scrapbook section that we hope will be filled with the faces of you lovely readers and your people, your pets, your own Marshall moments. This first issue, we decided to share some photos from our team in Marketing and Communications. Next time, we hope to have received some photos from you all. Please send them to me at [email protected].
I cannot wait to see you.
Jean Hardiman, Editor
