Robert E. Ramsey

Robert E. "Bob" Ramsey, 69, of Wheeling, died Monday, Feb. 18, 2002, at home. He was retired from Youth Services System, Wheeling, where he worked for 10 years from 1984-94 as Director of Publicity and Development.

From 1998 up until the time of his death, Ramsey wrote a column, "A Committee of One", for the National Flag Foundation’s Quarterley Newsletter.

He came to Wheeling from Denver, Colorado, in 1963 to become the first lay editor of the West Virginia Register, Newspaper of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, succeeding the late Msgr. Frederick J. Schwartz, Chancellor of the Diocese.

Ramsey was editor of the newspaper for five years before moving to The Intelligencer as a copy editor.

In 1974 he became the public relations writer for Wheeling Jesuit University at the time Wheeling College where he worked for eight years. Ramsey began his newspaper career in the advertising department of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver in 1954 before joining the editorial staff of the Denver Catholic Register the following year.

Here he worked with the late Msgr. Matthew J. Smith, founder and editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register System of Newspapers, at that time the largest Catholic newspaper in the world.

Four years before retirement, Ramsey was a columnist for The Catholic Spirit, Wheeling Diocesan Newspaper, which left the Register paper chain in 1970.

Born in Hotsprings, Arkansas, on August 7, 1932, Ramsey attended Catholic schools in Arkansas, Utah, and Nebraska. His formal education upon graduation from Cathedral High School, Class of1950, Omaha, Nebraska.

Thereafter, he was a self-educated man whose love of learning was gleaned from a wide variety of books, magazines, and newspapers. His philosophy of life was: "If we would be teachers of people, we must be their servants."

He was an Army veteran of the Korean War, serving with the 58th Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, and a charter member and first historian of the Korean War Veterans Association, Ohio Valley Chapter. He was a life long member of the American Legion Post 1, Wheeling.

Bob was a member of the St. Michael Parish, Wheeling, where he served as an usher and was also a member of the Parish Funeral Choir.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Chester A. and Margaret T. Walsh Ramsey, and by his half brother Walter Ramsey.

Surviving are his beloved wife Dorothy M. Cook Ramsey, his sister-in-law Virginia Cook of Glen Dale, three nephews and two nieces, and his first cousins with whom he resided for a number of years in Omaha, Nebraska. Among them is the Right Rev. Theodore Wolff, OSB, Abbot of Mount Michael Abbey, Elkhorn, Nebraska.

Visitation will be from 6-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Altmeyer Funeral Home, 154 Kruger St., Elm Grove, where vigil service will be held at 8:00 p.m.

Funeral liturgy with mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday at St. Michael Catholic Church with the Rev. James Sobus as celebrant. Rabbi Daniel Lowey, a friend of the deceased, will give remarks. Interment will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Wheeling.

Memorial contributions may be made to the West Virginia Catholic Foundation, Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, 1300 Byron St., Wheeling, WV, or Valley Hospice, 98 B East Cove Avenue, Wheeling, WV.