Ken Hechler was an icon of West Virginia politics who died in 2016 at the age of 102. He was a speechwriter for President Truman, a professor at Marshall University, and a U.S. Congressman from 1959 to 1977. As a congressman he was a principal architect of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. He served as West Virginia Secretary of State from 1984 until 2004. After retirement he was a tireless and militant campaigner against mountaintop removal coal mining, and was arrested during a 2009 protest. More than once, I remember seeing his signature red jeep parked at Shoney’s in Charleston during their Sunday breakfast buffets.
Charleston, WV: Mountain State, 1987. Hardback in dust jacket.