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Jack Roop ('51)
Jack Roop - Through good times and bad, Beckley man stays focused on what is important to him - his family
This article appeared in the Register-Herald on April 27, 2003.By JESSICA SHIFFLETT
Times might have changed for Jack Roop, but the former West Virginia legislator said times haven't changed him all that much.
"I've had lots of experiences," the 70-year-old Beckley resident said. "But I've never had anything that changed my life."
He's seen bad times and good, fat times and lean ones, but Roop, who retired from the political arena in the early 1990s but so far hasn't managed to stay in retirement, said his principle of living is the same as it was when he was in high school.
"I knew growing up that if you were going to have something, you had to work for it.
"So I made up my mind before I was ever out of high school that I'd work for it. And I worked.
"And I still believe that way," Roop added, emphatically. "If you're honest and you work hard, you can do about anything you want to."
And Jack Gordon Roop has done just about anything he's wanted to: He's served on the Raleigh County Commission, represented the 27th District in the House of Delegates for five terms, has owned and operated several successful businesses in Beckley, has served as director of the state Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority under former Gov. Gaston Caperton and has worked as service manager for Lewis Chevrolet and later as a lobbyist on the state level.
And through it all, he's managed to stay focused on what he says is most important in his life - his family.
He and his wife of 48 years, Mary Frances Roop, reared three children, Carl "Bill" Roop of Beckley, Mary Jacqueline Roop McDaniel of Fayette County and Jack "Gordie" Roop of Beckley.
He says Mary Frances has been a partner in the couple's personal and professional successes.
"I couldn't have done it without her," he said. "She worked hard, and I worked hard. We worked together and saved together and went through hard times together ... I think hard work and being honest is what really helped us, and we're a close-knit family."
Roop's life story is golden, a textbook case of an American dream realized through family support and hard work.
Shortly after Roop - the fourth of six children - was born in Kentucky in 1933, his family moved to Tamroy in Raleigh County so his father could work in the coal mines.
"Those were hard times, hard times," Roop recalled. "We lived on a little knoll up from the main road. My dad would have to sit down three or four times to get to the house because he had black lung so bad he couldn't breathe, but he still went to work every day."
Work for Roop's father was shoveling coal into train cars for New River Coal Co. and other mine companies.
"He had to load the coal. That was back when they lay on their stomach; they got paid by the ton to load the train," Roop said. "Sometimes the (bosses) would say, 'Well, here's a little slate, we can't pay you for this one, too much rock in that other one.'"
Roop's introduction to business came at the company store, where all the mining families had to shop.
"They'd say to them back then, 'Go get your scrip and spend it at the company store.'
"And company store prices was much higher than they were anywhere else," Roop recalled. "A lot of people said, 'Oh, them was good times.'
"They wasn't good times for me. Hard times, but we made it."
Roop was 14 when his father died of complications from black lung. The family moved to Maple Fork, where times didn't get easier. An older brother who'd joined the military sent back a financial allotment every month to their mother, but making ends meet was still a struggle.
"It was hard. Back then, you didn't have those checks, free food and different things," Roop said. "So we grew up pretty rough - no money, in other words ... But nobody where we lived had any money, so you didn't really miss it.
"If everybody else had had money, it would've been different, but nobody had money."
School wasn't Roop's favorite pastime, he said, but he discovered at Woodrow Wilson High School that adding and subtracting numbers came naturally to him.
"I didn't like school very much. I did it because I knew we had to do it," he said. "But I didn't ever study, and I made A's in math. I loved it."
He graduated from WWHS in 1951, three years before he met Mary Frances, who had attended Mount Hope High School.
"A relative of mine lived up next to where she lived," Roop said, explaining how the couple met. "We dated for a year before getting married (in 1955)."
Roop said Beckley is where his political career started, but before 1976, he never had any intention of entering politics.
Shortly after they were married, he took a job as service manager at Lewis Chevrolet in Beckley, while Mary Frances went to work at Legacy One at Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens.
"Charlie Lewis (who owned the car dealership) was like a dad to me," Roop recalled. "I worked there for 17 years, and that's where I met a lot of people, and that's what helped me get elected."
In 1976, Roop said, he had three businesses of his own when he walked over to Raleigh County Courthouse to talk to Lorena Wallace, an old friend who was a magistrate.
"Before I left, she talked me into going over and filing for county commissioner against two incumbents," he said. "I'd hardly been in the courthouse door.
"I thought, well, I won't last a second or two, but all my school buddies jumped in; they campaigned for me.
"Then when the election was over, I won big-time," he recalled.
His first day as commissioner is one Roop has never forgotten.
"The first day I went over to the courthouse, I met this guy on the steps, and he wanted to borrow $2," Roop remembered.
Roop said the man promised him he didn't get drunk, so the new commissioner handed over two dollar bills and went into the commission office, where some public servants began briefing him on his new job.
As they talked, Roop said he happened to glance outside, where he saw two policeman struggling with a familiar-looking subject - the man to whom he'd just given $2.
"I was listening to these people talk, and I happen to look out the window, and here they come dragging him in," Roop laughed. "He'd used my $2 to buy him some wine or something. First day on the job."
Roop served one term as county commissioner before aiming his sights on the House of Delegates, winning the office in his first campaign in 1982.
"That was a new experience," the businessman said. "The first year I was in Charleston, I thought, oh, my, this country is in terrible shape. I didn't understand it at all, and I thought, I must be missing something.
"So the second year, I sort of got the system figured out and then I really enjoyed it after that."
Roop said serving the public and giving his best was his way of paying back the county for being good to him.
"Life's been good to us, and people have been good to us, and Raleigh County's been good to us," he said. "I like politics, and I like people."
As a delegate, Roop said he believes one of the biggest services he provided was his part in getting Grandview State Park recognized as part of the New River Gorge National River.
Roop said he successfully worked with the National Park Service to have Grandview listed as part of the national park, qualifying it for more grants.
"Everything at Grandview is first-class, and that's one thing that will be here for a long time," he judged.
Another favorite project was the development of the public defenders' office in Raleigh County, he said, adding he worked with the House speaker to make the legal office a reality.
"The (speaker) at the time was Joe Albright (now a state Supreme Court justice)," Roop said. "He said, 'If you can get the board to vote that Raleigh County will be the next public defenders' office, I'll put some money in the budget for it.'"
Roop said, at Albright's request, he promised not to tell another legislator about their deal. After that, he went searching for another delegate to help him bring the office to Raleigh County, finally locating another young legislator who agreed to help after some nudging.
"I told this boy on the board to vote that Raleigh County will have the next public defenders' office," Roop said.
The young delegate protested there was no money for the project, Roop recalled.
"I said, don't worry about the money, just vote Raleigh County will be the next place we get a public defenders' office. He came back, and he was laughing. He said, 'Good thing you sent me over there. That one vote made the difference.'
"So we got the money in the budget for it and sent it in and Raleigh County had the next public defenders' office. It's brought several million dollars in."
Roop said in 1993, after being elected to five consecutive terms in office, he opted not to run a sixth time.
"I just thought 10 years was enough," he explained. "The last year I was in Charleston, we had a lot of special sessions and I was trying to run several businesses."
Although he hasn't re-entered politics, Roop said his years in the House of Delegates provided him with friends around the state.
"You sit there 60 days straight, side to side, working with them, and you make friends for life," Roop said. "That's one good thing about it, because anywhere I go in West Virginia, there's somebody I know."
While his voting pattern always was relatively conservative, Roop said he respected his more liberal colleagues in the Legislature.
"You always respect their views. You don't agree with them, but you respect them."
Roop has operated several businesses over the years, and worked as a lobbyist for two legislative sessions shortly after he retired from politics.
In 1993, he got an interesting call from then-Gov. Caperton.
"I wanted to retire, then Gov. Caperton told me to come to Charleston so he and I could talk about me being director of the regional jail system."
When he arrived at the Capitol, Roop said, he'd only spoken a few minutes with Caperton when the governor was called to another meeting.
"He told one of his aides, 'Here, talk to Jack.' So I talked to him, and I waited and waited."
When Caperton didn't return, Roop said he finally excused himself and drove back to Beckley.
"Mary says, 'Jack, did you get that job?' I said, 'I'm not sure.'
"Then it came out in the paper Jack Roop was the director of the regional jail system," he laughed.
After retiring from that position, Roop tried retirement in general and didn't like it.
"I don't have any hobbies," he said. "Work's probably my hobby."
Roop's current part-time position with the state treasurer's office is giving him more time with his main passion in life - spending time with his family.
Most of his focus now is on his grandchildren, he said.
This month, he and his wife took their four grandsons - Matthew, 17, Nicholas, 8, Austin, 6, and Jayce, almost 7 - to Myrtle Beach.
"We went last year," he said. "Nicholas is wanting to catch a shark, so I called one of those commercial fishermen who said he could have Nicholas catch a little shark. Jayce is going to have a birthday party down there."
The Roops are also awaiting the any-day arrival of their first granddaughter and her twin brother when Bill's wife gives birth this month.
"I've tried to tell my kids, if you want something, work hard while you're young and you don't have to work as hard when you get older," he said. "Whether they listen or not, I don't know, but that's the way it goes.
"But I've had a good life, my wife has had a good life, and we owe a lot to Raleigh County."
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