Carlton Gandee, 1931 – 2006

 

We are pleased to announce the creation of a memorial fund to honor Carlton "Coach" Gandee, who passed away March 9, 2006. All gifts to this fund will be added to the principal investment and the fund income used to honor outstanding student athletes at Herbert Hoover High School.  Our goal is to grow this permanent fund to reach a level of between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 so that annual scholarship awards may be presented to the selected "Coach Gandee award recipients."

 

As you consider how much you would like to contribute to this fund, please remember how Coach touched your life or the life of a member of your family.   Coach devoted his life to serving others --- especially young people.  Our goal through this permanent endowment fund is to continue Coach's good work and legacy by teaching new generations about him and his extended family of students and athletes.  We are asking donors to consider contributions between $ 100 and $ 1000.  Of course, all levels of gifts will be greatly appreciated added to the endowment to benefit generations of Hoover students to come.

 

The Carlton Gandee Memorial Fund has now been transferred to the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, 1600 Huntington Square, 900 Lee Street, East, Charleston, West Virginia 25301

 

Thank you for your generosity in building a new financial resource for future Herbert Hoover college-bound students.

 

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Dennis Carlton Gandee

Dennis Carlton Gandee, 75, of Clendenin, died Thursday, March 9, 2006, following a long illness. He was a retired teacher, coach, and Vice Principal for Clendenin and Herbert Hoover High Schools with 29 years of service, and a member of the Kanawha County Association of Retired School Employees. He was a U.S. Navy Jet Pilot veteran and was also a member of First Baptist Church of Clendenin.

He was the son of the late Henry Dennis and Birdie (Carter) Gandee and was preceded in death by his sister, Patricia Ann Settle.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Lanham Gandee; daughter, and her spouse, Kelly Jo and Steve Evans of St. Albans; sons and their spouses, David and Jo Debra Gandee of Slaty Fork, Timothy and Susan Gandee of Elkview, Jeffrey and Angela Gandee of Pinch, and Terry Gandee of Clendenin; grandchildren, Megan, Jessica, Maria, Charlton, Carly, Eleanor, Lillian, and Olivia Gandee, Sammy, and Austin Evans; stepgrandchildren, Rachel and Jason Long; sister, Helen Louise Hall of Belpre, Ohio; brothers, Henry Mayford “Bob”, and James Clinton Gandee of Clendenin, Garland Ray Gandee of Centerville, Md., and Larry Donald Gandee of La Plata, Md.

Arrangements are being handled by Matics Funeral Home, 124 First Ave., Clendenin, where the family will receive family and friends from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March 11.

Funeral service will be 2 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at First Baptist Church of Clendenin with Pastor Rex Thompson officiating.

Interment will be at Clendenin Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, the family suggest donations be made to the First Baptist Church Building Fund, PO Box 501, Clendenin, WV 25045.

 

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Friday March 17, 2006

Coach Carlton Gandee enriched Carbide camps

The obituary for Coach Carlton Gandee described the life and contributions of a man who was and is beloved by many.

One fact not mentioned in the obituary is that for many years Carlton directed Union Carbide's Children's Camp Program at Camelot and Carlisle.

All of us at Carbide who worked with Carlton and his wife Dottie, and also the hundreds of youngsters whose formative years were so enriched by the programs that they offered at the camps, will remember this experience with fondness and gratitude.

Frank Stowers

Dunbar

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Beloved coach was ‘a super, super guy'

Tom Aluise
Daily Mail sportswriter

Friday March 10, 2006

Carlton Gandee, the most beloved and respected coach in Herbert Hoover High School history, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 75.

"He was more of a gentleman than anyone I've ever worked with," retired Hoover Principal Charlie Burford said. "Everything about Carlton was positive.  "He was just a super, super guy," Burford added.

The face of athletics on the Elk River for many decades, Gandee coached several sports at Hoover from the year it opened in 1963 as a consolidation of Elkview and Clendenin, to his retirement in 1987. He was best known, however, as the Huskies' boys basketball coach. Gandee coached Hoover from 1963-78 and again from 1982-86. Over the years, he coached all four of his sons.

Gandee also served as the Mountain State Athletic Conference's first commissioner, a task he tackled in retirement and one at which he excelled.  "I've never known him to undertake anything that he didn't do an outstanding job," said Pete Kelley, a retired Hoover teacher, coach and administrator. "With Carlton, you knew if it was in his hands, then you didn't have to worry about it.” "We've lost a great guy. And I've lost a good friend. Carlton was probably one of the best people I ever knew."

 Gandee flew fighter planes in the Navy after his graduation from Glenville State and once buzzed the town of Clendenin, said his wife of 50 years, Dottie. "I think he scared his mom to death," Dottie Gandee said. After four years in the Navy, Gandee returned to Clendenin where he coached junior high sports.  He eventually became the head basketball coach at his alma mater, Clendenin High, in 1958 and coached there five seasons before the school closed.

Gandee also worked as an assistant football coach. "He left the Navy because he wanted to be a coach," Dottie Gandee said. "That's what his heart wanted. I don't know of anything he loved more than working with kids."

 Gandee's 1959-60 Clendenin basketball team made it all the way to the Class AA state semifinals, where it lost to eventual champ Romney. Mike Chandler, now in his 34th year on the Hoover faculty, was a freshman on that Clendenin team that went 19-7, Gandee's best year ever as a coach. "I've been friends with him ever since," said Chandler, a former head softball and basketball coach at Hoover. "He was a great influence on me and on many, many others," Chandler said. "I can't tell you over the years how many people have had good things to say about him and how much of an influence he was on them, not only in athletics, but in education. "I'll certainly miss him. Anybody who came to know him will miss him greatly."

 Burford, an Elkview High graduate, played against Gandee's Clendenin teams and developed an early respect for the coach. "I always knew him as Mr. Gandee or Coach Gandee," Burford said. "I came to Hoover in 1980 as the principal and he was a vice principal. I was his boss, at least on paper, but I was never able to get beyond calling him Mr. Gandee or Coach Gandee. "Even though I was a level of administration above him, he took me under his wing. He was my mentor."

 Gandee's basketball teams at Hoover struggled to win games in the rugged Kanawha Valley Conference but were usually competitive. Gandee went 151-259 at Hoover. Including his stint at Clendenin, Gandee finished with a coaching record of 205-319. He had three winning seasons at Hoover, including his inaugural year (11-9).  This year's Hoover boys team went 12-12, the school's first non-losing season since Gandee's 1969-70 Huskies compiled a 12-9 mark.

 "He was a tremendous coach, teacher and friend," said Steve Stoffel Sr., who played basketball for Gandee at Hoover and who's now the Huskies' football coach and athletic director. "After I got into the teaching profession, he was one of those I called on for advice. And he was always willing to give it to me. He will be missed on the Elk River."

 In addition to basketball, Gandee developed a reputation as a knowledgeable assistant football coach. He served in that capacity at Hoover until he became vice principal in 1978. "He was an excellent football coach," said Joe Cowley, who directed Hoover's football program from 1970-98. "He was as good a line coach as you'll ever want. He demanded a lot out of the kids and they respected him for that. "I was always pleased with Carlton. I always told him you ought to take my job and I'll take yours."

 Gandee, in addition to his wife and five children, is survived by four brothers and a sister.