Bringing It Home

A Legacy That Gathered People

The room feels warm and full before the first toast.

People keep appearing in the doorway at Laseter’s Tavern in Atlanta — some faces Alison Toothman Garland hasn’t seen in years — drawn by a name that still echoes around the Mountaineer community: Bill Toothman. Longtime leader of WVU Alumni’s Peach State Chapter. Ringmaster. Connector. Mentor. The person who could turn a game-watch into a family reunion and a bus trip into an adventure.

They came to honor him. They came because, for years, he had shown up for them.

By kickoff, the place is shoulder-to-shoulder. There’s laughter, a few tears, and stories told brighter with every retelling. Some guests admit they hadn’t been to a chapter event in a decade. “We wouldn’t have missed this,” they tell Alison. “Your dad is why we have each other.”  

That’s the heart of Bill’s legacy: one life continuing to ripple outward. He built circles. He connected people. And he never stopped paying it forward.

Bill grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia, and — like many first-year students — he cried when he left home for college. WVU quickly became his second family, and it stayed that way. After graduating in 1969, he built a career in sales with Unilever before devoting his retirement to a new calling: full-time volunteer for his alma mater.

“Bill’s one of the best Mountaineers I’ve ever met,” says Kevin Berry, vice president of WVU Alumni Relations and CEO of the WVU Alumni Association. “He graduated and immediately got engaged with the University. He founded our Peach State Chapter in Atlanta and created a welcoming environment. He loved Homecoming. That’s one reason we’re telling this story now. But honestly, he created a sense of homecoming at every event.”

Bill handled logistics, fundraising, and all the practical pieces, but what people remember most is how he made them feel: seen, wanted, connected.

In Atlanta, that mattered. Many alumni had moved far from family into a city where the traffic was thick and the roots still thin. “For a lot of people in the chapter, Bill became almost like a father figure,” Kevin says.

It didn’t take much to end up in his orbit, just a flash of gold and blue. Alison laughs remembering a woman in a Publix parking lot wearing a WVU shirt. “Dad literally chased her through the parking lot to invite her to Laseter’s to watch the game,” she says. “She thought, ‘Who is this crazy guy?’ But that was him. If he saw a Mountaineer, you were immediately family.”

Found Family and Forward Motion

Alison can tell a hundred stories like that. “Country Roads” playing in a Paris café sparks texts from friends who still think of her dad. Strangers at a game-watch become lifelong friends over memories of Bill. A Georgia high-school student, deciding between two universities, chose WVU after one afternoon with Bill’s crew. “She said, ‘Seeing you with people you’d never met, just connecting like that … that’s what I want to be part of,’” Alison recalls. It wasn’t salesmanship. It was belonging, lived out loud.

Kristin Sumner, now Peach State’s president, first found the group through a Facebook post Alison had made: an open invitation to a pre-game party. She went, met Bill’s circle, and never looked back. “I found a welcoming group that almost instantly became my family—my ‘framily,’” she says. Seventeen years later, many members share the same story. It starts with a party and ends with new roots.

“Bill wasn’t just the chapter president,” Kristin says. “He was my Atlanta dad.” There were road trips to Norman and Gainesville, Braves games, holidays, summers by the pool. “We have a team of about five people doing what Bill did alone,” she says about the change in leadership. “He was larger than life. I see my role now as a steward: maintain what Bill built, invite in the next generation, keep the circle open.”

Under Bill’s leadership, the Peach State Chapter didn’t just gather, it gave. “Helping young people was central to Bill,” Kevin says. “What could he do to make them feel welcomed in Atlanta? How could he help advance their careers?” Over the years, the chapter supported everything from the Alumni Association building fund to WVU athletics programs. Its crown jewels: two fully endowed scholarships for Georgia students heading to Morgantown. Bill tracked those students by name, reached out to families, and made sure their WVU stories began — and continued — with community, not distance.

Homecoming mattered deeply to him. He always returned to campus but also taught others how to make that feeling portable. Wherever Mountaineers gathered — at Laseter’s or a ballpark a few hours away — Bill built Homecoming on the spot. If WVU played within driving distance, he’d arrange the bus himself. Sleep could wait. Showing up could not.

He loved Homecoming. That’s one reason we’re telling this story now. But honestly, he created a sense of homecoming at every event.” Kevin Berry

When the Peach State Chapter decided how best to honor him, they chose something that felt true to his spirit: building bridges.

During Homecoming 2025, the Toothman family and the Peach State Chapter presented a $10,000 contribution in Bill’s honor, designated for student internships through the WVU Alumni Association President’s Fund. The proceeds came from the first Bill Toothman Memorial Golf Outing, a fitting blend of camaraderie and impact.

“This gift helps us fund internships for WVU students,” Kevin says. “Real-world experience in communications and engagement, mentoring, and a chance to work directly with alumni chapters. It honors an icon among chapter leaders while living out what Bill always wanted to do: help the next generation.”

In spring 2026, the Alumni Association will post two student positions: one focused on communications, the other on engagement. If the selected students are available in summer, they’ll start then; if not, they’ll begin in the fall. Either way, they’ll learn by doing exactly what Bill modeled: connecting alumni, strengthening networks, telling the WVU story from the inside out.

Th at’s Bill Toothman’s legacy. And it’s alive and expanding.

If you stop by the next tailgate or watch party at Laseter’s (or wherever Mountaineers gather) you’ll hear it. Laughter, stories, the start of friendships. “I have so many friends who love West Virginia now because of my dad,” Alison says. “And they’ve never set foot in the state of West Virginia.”

Bill could make a tavern in Atlanta feel like a front porch in Morgantown. He knew how to throw a party and turn it into a tradition, but he also did the quiet work: calls, invitations, checking on families, encouraging new graduates. The best communities are built on attention. And he paid attention.

“He truly loved people and loved West Virginia. And anything he could do to connect the two, he would try,” Alison says. “Everything we are today, we owe to him.”

The new internships carry that belief forward. They turn Bill’s gift for creating homecomings into something the next generation of Mountaineers can learn and use in their futures. Like how to build networks that feel like family, how to keep the fun alive no matter which way the game is going, and how to make everyone (no matter who they root for or where they come from) feel at home.

Homecoming isn’t a date on the calendar. It’s what happens when Mountaineers like Bill Toothman come together and keep the good work going.

And now, two students at a time, that work continues.