On June 14, 2024, R. Ivan “Doc P” Pinnell embarked on his next great adventure to where the salmon are endless, the elk play hide and seek and many friends, family and beloved pets awaited him. Friends and family will gather in Morgantown on Tuesday, June 25, at the Fred L.
Jenkins Funeral Home from 5-8 p.m. and in Evans, Jackson County, on Thursday, June 27, at the Casto Funeral Home, from 5-8 p.
m. Burial with full military honors will be in Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. Ivan was born Feb.
16, 1943, in Grafton, and grew up in Millwood, where he was a member of FFA (Future Farmers of America) and 4-H. He graduated from Ravenswood High School in 1961. His love for the outdoors and the state was instilled while growing up on the farm and in small-town West Virginia.
He went on to higher education at Potomac State College (WVU), West Virginia University and then Jacksonville (Ala.) State University, to earn his BS in journalism and MS in political science, respectively. Ivan furthered his education with a PhD in speech communication from the University of Denver, Colo.
Unknowingly at the time, this PhD would become the basis for his nickname given by his students later in life. Those who only knew Ivan late in life may not know he had two distinct careers in the service of others, the first in the military and the other as faculty at West Virginia University. Ivan entered Army basic training at Fort Dix, N.
J., in April 1968, a tumultuous time in the U.S.
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