Salem University Athletics

Born March 18, 1915, C.E. Compton served Salem College as a member of the Board of Trustees for 28 years.
 
He is responsible for an innovative educational program of health awareness through nutrition and physical education at Salem College. This program promoted preventative medicine and therapy through increased instruction in nutrition.
 
Compton aided the construction of the Armand Hammer Equestrian Center at Salem College. Because of his interest in the betterment of life, Salem College students received knowledge and training essential to persons developing an intelligent approach to living.
 
The recipient of and Honorary Doctorate Degree at Salem College in 1983, Compton was a well-known industrial leader of the Harrison County community. He founded the Grafton Coal Company in 1942 at the age of 24. An inventor and pioneer, Compton was the first to use the modern block-cut mining methods of mining coal and invented auger mining equipment.
 
Compton’s foresight and ingenuity did not stop with inventing. His many companies pioneered the haul back concept in surface mining coal which allows surface mined land to be returned to the approximate original contour.
 
In 1975, Compton was honored as the first “Coal Man of the Year” by the West Virginia University Scholarship Foundation. He was also appointed by Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. to the West Virginia Reclamation Board of Review and honored as a “Distinguished West Virginian”.
 
He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Union National Bank of Clarksburg, the G.A. Brown and Son Lumber and Construction Company of Fairmont, and the West Virginia University Scholarship Foundation.