HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 14
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, By Request)
Requesting the renaming of the West Virginia Rehabilitation
Center, located at Institute in Kanawha County, to the "F.
Ray Power Rehabilitation Center".
Whereas, In the mid 1930's F. Ray Power had the remarkable
foresight to propose to the Legislature that an agency be
created solely to serve the needs of handicapped West
Virginians, thereby prompting the creation of the Vocational
Rehabilitation Division of the State Board of Vocational
Education under the authority of the State Board of Education;
and
Whereas, Following visits to the Woodrow Wilson
Rehabilitation Center in Fisherville, Virginia, a former Army
Hospital, F. Ray Power began to recognize the need for a similar
facility in our State to serve severely disabled West
Virginians, thus leading to the utilization of abandoned
facilities for that purpose that formerly housed the West
Virginia School for Negro, Deaf and Blind children; and
Whereas, With fortitude, and the cooperation of the
appropriate governmental bodies, F. Ray Power was able to open
the West Virginia Rehabilitation Center in the few buildings
that had been abandoned, and which stood on approximately thirty-three acres of land located at Institute. These
facilities became an integral part of a statewide vocational
rehabilitation program; and
Whereas, The Rehabilitation Center, originally founded by F.
Ray Power who, on May 3rd of 1998, will have been born one
hundred years ago, recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary
of service to our citizens, providing a fitting occasion to
honor the many years of dedication and unswerving service of F.
Ray Power to the disabled citizens of this sState by renaming the
West Virginia Rehabilitation Center, the "F. Ray Power
Rehabilitation Center"; therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Delegates:
That the collective desire of the House of Delegates be
communicated to the Senate that the West Virginia Rehabilitation
Center, located at Institute in Kanawha County, be renamed as
the "F. Ray Power Rehabilitation Center"; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk is hereby directed to
forward a copy of this resolution to the President of the Senate.