Gordon Simmons - WV’s leading public intellectual
Spanish filmmaker Luis Argeo, WV filmmaker Terry Lively, and WVLHA prez Gordon Simmons, May 2007
Gordon Simmons is the “Noam Chomsky” of West Virginia -or perhaps more exactly, the Antonio Negri, of West Virginia. Besides having an advanced education in philosophy, and teaching many courses in the difficult subject, he somehow finds the time to fight for the laboring women and men of the state.
He works full-time for The Division of Culture in History, assisting John Lilly in creating Goldenseal. He also teaches usually two courses at night in philosophy for various Kanawha Valley colleges. Somehow he finds the time to read almost every novel written by a West Virginia author, serve as president of the WV Labor History Association, and recently, was elected president of the Capitol Complex Executive Board for the new UE Local 170 union. I don’t know when he has time to sleep, take care of his wife and children and mother - but he does.
I wrote a piece in my Graffiti column when Gordon was first hired by the agency, praising them for finally hiring one of the most intelligent people I have met in my almost 30 years in WV. Some may find this great wit challenging, but thankfully John Lilly knows how to use it, and just recently, Simmons wrote the single best article about Ken Hechler that I have ever read, ” The Lonely Battle.” (Goldenseal, fall 2007, p.24)
Simmons has promoted WV’s authors like I have promoted its filmmakers. Congrats to Gordon - may he receive all of the positive credit he deserves for spending decades of his life helping others understand philosophy, WV authors, and WV history. And supporting many great film events thru WVLHA during the last few years.
