The 2021 Champion of Excellence Award was accepted by Eric Ruf, center, Director of the Barbour Community Health Association and Dr. Cecil Holbert, right, the Medical Doctor at the Myers Clinic, and posthumously honors the Myers family of medical doctors. 

The award is to be displayed in the new Myers Clinic facility in Philippi.  Chamber President attorney Hunter Mullens is at right.

The Champion of Excellence Award, in the form of an engraved glass panel with a rosewood finish and silver star, is selected each year by the Director of the Chamber and his wife.  As the editor of a book on the history of the Myers family in Barbour County, Dr. Barbara Smith would have been delighted to see the award in place in the new clinic.

Created by ABU President Dr. Tim Barry, the Champion of Excellence Award recognizes outstanding dedication, visionary leadership and exceptional service to the community.  The Myers family of medical doctors, all deceased, beginning with Dr. Joseph Myers, and including his children Hu, Karl Sr., Karl Jr., Elmer, and Evangeline, have a long history of “firsts” in the county, the state, and the in nation. They are responsible for a medicine factory, rural distribution of medicines, the Myers Clinic which was among the first in the nation to treat cancer with X-Rays, Broaddus Hospital set on the campus of Alderson-Broaddus College, the first Baccalaureate programs in West Virginia in Medical Technology, Radiologic Technology, and Nursing, and the first in the nation with a Baccalaureate program for the Physician’s Assistant.