President Jerome Gilbert speaks to College of Education and Professional Development students on Friday, April 29, 2016, at Marshall University.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The first time Jerome Gilbert came to West Virginia to attend a summer science camp, it was 1973, and Gilbert was an 18-year-old graduate of Jackson Prep School in Jackson, Mississippi, who was getting ready to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering from Mississippi State University.
The next time Gilbert returned to West Virginia, it was 2015, and Gilbert was getting ready to engage in a series of interviews that eventually led to him becoming the 37th president of Marshall University.
On Wednesday, Gilbert, now 61, will return to the site of his first visit when he travels to Camp Pocahontas in Pocahontas County, where he will be a featured lecturer at the National Youth Science Camp, the camp that originally brought him to the Mountain State 43 years ago.
“I’m expecting it’s going to be deja vu,” Gilbert said Tuesday. “They haven’t changed the location of the camp. It’s been the same since 1963. I’m sure the trees, landscaping and some other things are different, but I’ve heard the buildings are the same…
