Father Bill Matheny
WHEELING, W.Va.—Father William Matheny, a priest of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and former pastor at Keyser’s Church of the Assumption, was recently a contestant on the game show “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.”
The show was taped earlier this summer and will air on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and Thursday, Sept. 29.
The stations and times are as follows:
Southern West Virginia-WVVA Channel 6, 7:30 p.m.
Charleston/Huntington/Parkersburg-WSAZ Channel 3, 11 a.m.
Parkersburg – WIYE, Channel 6, 12:00 p.m.
Wheeling/Weirton-WTOV Channel 9, 12:30 p.m.
Eastern Panhandle-WJLA Channel 7, 12:30 p.m.
Morgantown-WPCW Channel 22, 3 p.m.
Eastern WV-WHSV Channel 3, 12:30 p.m. (Harrisonburg, Va.) or WSLS Channel 10, 2 p.m. (Roanoke, Va.)
A native of St. Albans, West Virginia, Father Matheny was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston on June 1, 1996. He has served in various parishes throughout the diocese and currently is the associate pastor of All Saints Parish in Bridgeport.
He has served in parishes in Bluefield, Parkersburg, Morgantown, Wheeling and Keyser, among other communities.
He also appeared on “Jeopardy” in 2013.
Father Matheny says his love of trivia began early – when he was in the first grade and he wanted to find something to do while his grandparents watched “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
“It was the longest hour of my life,” he joked, saying he would opt, instead, to studying the map located at that time in the center of the Charleston phone book.
He memorized the streets on that map and would often make note of them as he rode through the city with his grandfather.
By the time he was in third grade, he was memorizing other things, like the state capitols and U.S. presidents.
He counts his grandfather and the Catholic school he attended in St. Albans as the two greatest influences in his love for learning.
At this year’s Mineral County Senior Olympics, he participated in the talent show by reciting the state capitols, U.S. presidents, West Virginia counties, and several other lists as his talent.
As for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” although it was taped in Las Vegas several months ago, Father Matheny has kept the results of his appearance confidential. According to Father Matheny, he had to commit in writing that he would not reveal the outcome.
There will be a special viewing of the show with Father Matheny at St. Francis of Assisi parish grade school in St. Albans, West Virginia, on Sept. 28. He is an alumnus of the school and has pledged to give a portion of anything he wins to the school.
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