Many individuals wish to categorize others neatly. We class them nearly as good or unhealthy, good or loopy, personable or anti-social, a pal or somebody to keep away from, and so on.
Good luck becoming H. John Rogers right into a neat pigeonhole. He was the entire above and extra.
For 2 weeks now, I’ve struggled together with his dying on Feb. 1 — relating to what to jot down about him. I appreciated him nicely sufficient that I didn’t wish to point out a number of the issues he did in his life, however that may have been dishonest. With Herb (or H. John as some known as him), you needed to take the great with the unhealthy.
There was loads of the latter. Herb, who lived in New Martinsville, misplaced his legislation license in 2013 as a result of, in 2009, he filed a “psychological hygiene” grievance towards a businessman that resulted within the fellow being hauled off to a psychiatric facility, from which he was launched shortly.
Throughout his youthful days, he organized a foot race in his hometown of Reader. It ended when two contributors died, most likely of warmth stroke.
As soon as, throughout one in all many campaigns for public workplace — he by no means gained — Herb punched a reporter.
He was not an individual to get on the incorrect facet of, as we used to say. I did, at the least as soon as. Herb had organized one other distance run, with many of the course beside W.Va. 2. I wrote that the annual occasion should be known as off due to the hazard a runner could be struck by a automobile.
Herb knowledgeable me he didn’t want anybody in a three-piece go well with (his phrases) telling him tips on how to stage a race. Then he canceled the occasion. As he informed me years later, he’d already killed two folks in a race and didn’t wish to kill any extra.
At one level whereas I used to be working on the Wetzel Chronicle in New Martinsville, Herb introduced a really massive, very muscular faculty soccer participant into the workplace. He simply wished me to satisfy his pal, he stated. “Shake fingers,” he prompt. It was all I may handle to maintain from grimacing as his pal gripped my hand.
It needs to be stated: Some folks had been afraid of Herb. I by no means was, just because I sensed there was a line he’d by no means cross — however he’d dance very near it.
“Colourful” doesn’t start to explain him. Throughout one interval during which he was submitting lawsuits merely to harass folks he didn’t like, Herb discovered a pal to signal his identify to the paperwork. It was good to have lawsuits filed by W.V. Wildman, he defined.
At his dying, he was working for president, and had paid to run an commercial in his native paper, informing others within the race that he could be carrying a “sheathed G.I. surplus machete.” He identified this was his 2nd Modification proper.
Figuring out he wanted some publicity, Herb knowledgeable some within the press that he deliberate to dam the railroad tracks in New Martinsville. That might require his arrest by federal authorities, he stated. As an alternative, he was hauled off for a psychological analysis of his personal.
His antics — often however not all the time innocent, if alarming — had been what many individuals knew about Herb.
There was extra to him. He devoted appreciable effort to non secular research and earned two divinity levels. He traveled weekly to a jail in Pennsylvania to counsel the inmates. He helped the homeless with meals, clothes and cash.
In addition to I can inform, Herb — throughout his later years, at the least — tried to dwell a Christian life.
It says one thing about him that his stunts had been usually very public — however most individuals by no means heard concerning the good deeds he did.
I may let you know many different tales about Herb, and I didn’t know him nicely. What I do know is that he was good and, nicely, wacky at instances. He did some very unhealthy issues, and a few superb issues.
However don’t all of us match into that exact class?
The distinction with Herb was that in some ways, he did issues with extra panache.
I think some folks gained’t miss him in any respect. I’ll, partially as a result of at a time when political correctness is working amok, he remained a real maverick. I’ve by no means identified anybody like him. I don’t assume I ever will.
Mike Myer will be reached at mmyer@theintelligencer.web.
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