Jerome Van Meter Dies at 102, By Pat  Hanna, Regional Editor, of The Register-Herald,Thursday, April 24, 2003.  He Lived under 19 Presidents and Served in Both Wars.

He went to school with Red Grange at Illinois and rubbed elbows with Pop Warner, Jim Thorpe, Knute Rockne, Joe DiMaggio, Gen. George Marshall, Woody Hayes, Paul Brown, George Allen and the head of General Motors, among others. Above all, he was a caring and devoted husband for more than 71 years, a father figure to hundreds of athletes who benefited from his knowledge, his compassion, his wisdom, his class. Jerome VanMeter was Beckley. And to many, the greatest high school coach West Virginia has seen.
The legendary mentor died Wednesday at Greystone Inn in Beaver. He was 102.
"The 'Gray Eagle' shall be missed by all," Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said. "He was a legend to all of Raleigh County and West Virginia. The manner in which he treated his players set the highest standards for coaches across the country. He was first-class in every respect.

"VanMeter came to Beckley in 1929, following seven years in Point Pleasant, and except for his World War II duty and 18 retirement years in Florida, Beckley was home.For the better part of 30 years, VanMeter taught and coached at Woodrow Wilson High School.In basketball, his Flying Eagle teams won 674 games - second most in West Virginia history - and six state championships, including four in a row from 1951 to 1954.In football, he won 222 games and three state titles. "Nobody has accomplished more in basketball than Coach Boyd and Coach VanMeter," former Woodrow Wilson basketball coach Dave Barksdale said, referring to the Gray Eagle and the late Jennings Boyd, who won eight straight state championships at Northfork. "When you add what Coach VanMeter did in football, I don't see how people could argue against him being the greatest coach ever in West Virginia. "He was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He left coaching in 1959 and became principal of Beckley Junior High School. He retired from the public school system in 1966, then taught six years at Beckley College.He and his wife, Aline, spent 18 of their retirement years in Florida before coming back to Beckley. She died in 1998. They had no children.
"Aline and I had a great life together," he said in a 1999 interview. "I never did like to play golf. I could play, but I couldn't see playing golf day after day. We traveled 49 states together, pulling a trailer. She liked to fish and I liked to fish. We had some wonderful times."VanMeter was born Aug. 15, 1900, in Williamsville, Ill.
He received a degree in engineering at Illinois Wesleyan, then earned a teaching degree. He also attended the University of Illinois and received his master's degree and principal's certificate from West Virginia University. As a youngster in the early 1900s, he and his friends made their own baseballs and bats.When they heard about a new sport called football, "we got a pig's bladder and tried to make a football out of it," he said in 1999. "That didn't work, so we got a piece of leather and used that. You couldn't throw it, but you could run with it. "And then there was another sport in its infancy, basketball. "That was along about the time of World War I. We threw our pennies together and hung a hook up on a post. That's all we had, then they finally brought us down a net. There were no rules then."
In fact, because many sports were in their infancy, there was little, if anything, in the books on coaching."There were no physical education programs at all in colleges and universities," he said. "You could grow up on a farm and be strong, but we were poor physically. "The University of Illinois opened up coaching courses. They offered a six-week coaching course during summer vacation. I went there two summers and took coaching courses. "It was there he met the legendary Red Grange, the "Galloping Ghost" and one of the football greats of the 20th century.
"He was in the same thing I was, taking some of the courses and demonstrating. I got to know him there. Later on, I met him again in Huntington at a coaching clinic. I saw him beat Ohio State. He finally got loose and beat them. He was the kind of guy who was easy to get to know."At another coaching clinic, VanMeter was introduced to Pop Warner and Jim Thorpe. On three occasions, he attended coaching clinics at Notre Dame conducted by Knute Rockne.  "I went to a coaching school about every summer. I worked most summers, too. I went to coaching clinics as far away as Colorado. "In 1922, he heard about a job in West Virginia, at Point Pleasant High School, and decided to take it.VanMeter met his wife in Point Pleasant. They were married in 1926 and came to Beckley three years later.  VanMeter trained for Army infantry during World War I. During World War II, he was a battalion training instructor stateside. The "Gray Eagle" had a way with people. "When I was inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame up in Parkersburg, Woody Hayes (the Ohio State football coach) was the main speaker, " he said in 1999. "He was kind of a nut like I was when it came to books.  I asked him if he had the book by a fellow at Ohio State who wrote the first book on football. He said, 'No, they don't even have it at our library.' I said, 'I've got one. Do you want it?' So I gave him the one I had. He told me, 'Any time you want to come to Ohio State for a football game, you've got a place on the bench with me, and you and your wife will stay with me and my wife.'  "On another occasion, VanMeter was visiting with one of his former Beckley athletes, Lew Webb, a prominent car dealer in the Los Angeles area. While at one of Webb's dealerships, he struck up a conversation with a man he'd never met. They talked for a while. After the conversation ended, Webb asked, "Do you know who that was?"

VanMeter: "No." Webb: "That was the head of General Motors."

Melton Mortuary of Beckley is in charge of funeral arrangements.