Barney Gedwillis

Barney Gedwillis was WVU’s best distance runner before WWII and one of the premier runners in the nation during the 1930s. As a senior, he participated in the 1936 U.S. Olympic Trials at 5,000 meters; running with a blister, he finished fourth, one spot away from a berth in the Berlin Olympics.

A two-time state high school champion, Gedwillis, a letterwinner from 1932-36 and team captain as a senior, set WVU school records in the mile (4:24.6) and two-mile (9:37.2) that stood for 32 years.

A native of Thomas, W.Va., Gedwillis earned an electrical engineering degree from WVU and went to Alaska to pursue business opportunities in the gold mines and mink ranching. He returned to West Virginia in 1939 and re-entered track competition, running the distance events in national AAU meets. The AAU named him to its 1940 All-America team.

Gedwillis took work in the aircraft industry, first in Baltimore and then in Seattle and California in a career that lasted more than 25 years. Gedwillis and his wife, the former Ann Fleming (who died in 1975), returned to Thomas after his retirement in the late 1960s.