Meet the Board: A Conversation with Founder and Board Member Terrill Gosa

In this inaugural installment of our “Meet the Board” series, Eugene and Beverly Stradwick Heritage Foundation founder Terrill Gosa discusses his East Wheeling upbringing, professional journey, devotion to historical research, and vision for preserving the African American history of Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley.

Please introduce yourself and tell our readers a little about your personal and professional background.

My name is Terrill Gosa. I am a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, and a proud graduate of Wheeling Park High School’s Class of 1989. I grew up in East Wheeling, in a neighborhood that profoundly shaped my understanding of family, community, education and perseverance.

I later earned my bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and built a career in engineering, technology and operations. Over the years, I have held leadership positions involving telecommunications, internet infrastructure, systems engineering and large-scale technical operations. My professional journey has included leadership roles at Time Warner Cable, Verisign and Google. In 2014, I was honored as a Luminary by the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications in recognition of professional achievement and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Although my career has taken me far beyond Wheeling, I have never stopped carrying Wheeling with me. The city remains an essential part of my identity, and the experiences of my family and community continue to influence how I think about opportunity, leadership and service.

I founded the Eugene and Beverly Stradwick Heritage Foundation to honor my grandparents and to help preserve, document, interpret and share the African American history of Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley.

My favorite sister, Monetta, at my college graduation.

My parents - Terry and Muriel Stradwick-Gosa, who sacrificed so much to send me to college.

What is your connection to Wheeling or the Upper Ohio Valley?

My connection to Wheeling begins with family.

I grew up on Lind Street in East Wheeling, surrounded by people who looked after one another and understood that a neighborhood was more than a collection of houses. It was an extended community. My grandparents, Eugene and Beverly Stradwick, lived there. Other relatives and longtime family friends were nearby. The people, churches, schools, playgrounds and familiar streets of East Wheeling helped form my earliest understanding of belonging.

I attended Clay School from kindergarten through sixth grade and later graduated from Wheeling Park High School. I remember East Wheeling not as an abstract subject in a history book but as a living place filled with families, athletes, educators, veterans, civic leaders and ordinary people who quietly accomplished extraordinary things.

As an adult, I began looking more closely at the history beneath those memories. I discovered that the neighborhood in which I grew up was connected to a much larger African American story—one extending from emancipation and the establishment of Wheeling’s public Colored School in 1866 to Lincoln School, Black churches, fraternal organizations, businesses, educators, musicians, athletes and civil-rights advocates.

The more I learned, the more I realized how much remained scattered, overlooked or at risk of being forgotten.

What drew you to the Eugene and Beverly Stradwick Heritage Foundation and inspired you to serve on its Board of Directors?

The Foundation began with a personal sense of responsibility.

I was conducting research into Lincoln School and the history of public education for African American children in Wheeling. What initially seemed like a focused historical inquiry kept expanding. One document led to another. School-board minutes led to newspaper reports. Newspaper reports led to Freedmen’s Bureau records, census data, yearbooks, photographs, government studies and family histories.

I soon realized that this was not merely the story of one school. It was the story of a community that had repeatedly built institutions, demanded opportunity and created lives of consequence despite segregation and discrimination.

I also recognized that many of these stories had never been assembled into a coherent public record. Some familiar accounts were incomplete. Others had been repeated so often that lore had begun to replace documented history.

The Foundation grew from the belief that this history deserves a permanent home and a responsible steward. Naming it for Eugene and Beverly Stradwick connects our work to two people whose values—family, service, faith, perseverance and community—represent the qualities we hope the organization will carry forward.

Serving on the Board is therefore deeply personal, but it is also an act of public trust. This history belongs to the community.

Me and my grandfather, Eugene Stradwick

Which part of the Foundation’s mission resonates most deeply with you, and why?

The commitment to preserve and document the historical record resonates most deeply with me.

Stories are powerful, but stories become vulnerable when they depend entirely upon memory. Documents disappear. Photographs lose their identifying information. Buildings are demolished. Newspaper clippings are discarded. Elders pass away before their experiences are recorded.

Once those connections are lost, reconstructing them can become difficult or impossible.

I am particularly committed to recovering the stories of people who were present in the historical record but were not always treated as its central subjects. The students in a classroom photograph, the teacher named in a school-board report, the family mentioned in a housing survey or the community volunteer listed in a newspaper column all contributed to Wheeling’s history.

Preservation gives those people back their names. Research restores context. Interpretation helps the public understand why their experiences matter.

That work sits at the heart of the Foundation.

What experiences, skills or perspectives do you hope to contribute to the Foundation’s work?

My professional life has centered on building systems that must be reliable, scalable and capable of serving people over long periods. I hope to bring that same discipline to the Foundation.

Historical enthusiasm is essential, but enthusiasm alone does not create a durable institution. The Foundation also needs responsible governance, financial controls, preservation standards, ethical policies, strategic partnerships and technology capable of protecting collections and making them accessible.

I bring experience in engineering, operations, project management, organizational leadership and long-range planning. I am accustomed to taking large ideas, breaking them into achievable parts and building the structures needed to support them.

I also bring the perspective of someone who grew up inside the community whose history we are preserving. That personal connection helps me recognize the human meaning behind the documents. At the same time, I believe affection for a story must never become permission to distort it. Our responsibility is to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

What have you learned—or what do you hope to learn—through your service on the Board?

I have learned that local history is both larger and more intimate than it first appears.

A single newspaper clipping can open an entire chapter of history. A school-board vote can reveal how a city understood citizenship. A handwritten letter can reconnect us with a person whose voice had been silent for more than a century.

I have also learned that preservation is collaborative. No individual possesses every photograph, document or memory. Libraries, museums, universities, churches, families, neighborhood organizations and independent researchers all hold different pieces of the story.

Through Board service, I hope to continue learning how to unite those pieces without attempting to own them. The Foundation should be a convener and trusted partner—an organization capable of bringing people together around responsible historical work.

I also expect to learn from our other directors. Each Board member brings a different relationship to Wheeling, a different professional background and a different way of seeing the mission. That diversity will make the Foundation stronger.

How would you describe the Foundation to someone encountering it for the first time?

I would describe the Eugene and Beverly Stradwick Heritage Foundation as a West Virginia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, documenting, interpreting and sharing African American history in Wheeling and throughout the Upper Ohio Valley.

We conduct historical research, preserve archival materials, develop educational resources, support exhibits and public programs, record oral histories and build partnerships with institutions that share our commitment to responsible preservation.

At a more human level, we are an organization that restores people to the story.

We want residents to recognize that African American history is not separate from Wheeling’s history. It is essential to understanding the city’s schools, neighborhoods, churches, industries, music, athletics, politics and civic life.

What interests or intrigues you most about Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley?

Wheeling is a place of extraordinary historical intersections.

It was a river city, an industrial center, a transportation hub and an important gateway between regions. Virginia slavery, Ohio freedom, westward migration, national commerce and the movement of people and ideas all converged in the Upper Ohio Valley.

Wheeling helped create the state of West Virginia during the Civil War. Only a few years later, its Board of Education established a tax-supported public school for African American children. The city later became home to thriving Black churches, fraternal organizations, professional leaders, musicians, athletes, educators and neighborhood institutions.

Yet Wheeling is also full of contradictions. It could demonstrate civic progress in one period while tolerating deep inequality in another. It could establish educational institutions while maintaining segregation. It could celebrate Black achievement while permitting Black neighborhoods to suffer from neglect.

Those tensions make Wheeling historically fascinating. Its history is neither a simple triumph nor a simple failure. It is a continuing struggle over who belongs, who receives opportunity and whose achievements are remembered.

Why is it important to preserve and share the African American history of Wheeling and the surrounding region?

Because without deliberate preservation, the historical record will remain incomplete.

African Americans helped build Wheeling’s neighborhoods, institutions and civic culture.

They served in wars, established churches, taught children, operated businesses, practiced medicine, published commentary, formed mutual-aid societies, organized celebrations and advocated for civil rights.

Nevertheless, many of their stories exist only in scattered fragments.

Preserving this history is not about adding an optional chapter to an otherwise complete story. It is about correcting the story itself.

The work also matters for younger generations. Black children in Wheeling deserve to know that people who looked like them taught school immediately after the Civil War, became physicians and lawyers, built civic organizations, excelled in athletics, shaped music and journalism, and fought for equal access to education, housing and public life.

History can give young people roots, and roots can help give them confidence.

Is there a Wheeling person, place, institution or historical event that holds special meaning for you?

East Wheeling holds special meaning for me because it is where my family’s history and the city’s larger African American history meet.

The neighborhood contained Clay School, the Elks Playground, churches, family homes and community gathering places. It was also connected to the historic Chapline Street African American neighborhood, Lincoln School and generations of Black civic life.

My grandparents, Eugene and Beverly Stradwick, are central to that connection. Naming the Foundation for them is a way of honoring their lives, but it also represents something broader. Most communities are sustained by people whose names never appear in conventional history books. They work, raise families, serve their neighbors and help the next generation move forward.

My grandparents represent those indispensable community builders.

What part of Wheeling’s African American history do you believe deserves greater recognition?

The history of African American education deserves much greater recognition.

In the fall of 1866, the Wheeling Board of Education established a public school for African American children using public tax dollars. John W. West became its first teacher.

Freedmen’s Bureau records document the school, its financing and West’s work. Additional records show the school expanding, hiring another Black teacher and serving children during the difficult years immediately following the Civil War and abolition of slavery.

That history ultimately leads to Lincoln School, which educated generations of Black children before desegregation brought its high-school era to an end in 1956.

This was not a minor institution operating on the edge of the city’s educational system. It was an essential part of Wheeling’s public-school history. Its students and teachers deserve to be discussed alongside every other major school and educator in the city.

12. Has anything you have learned about Wheeling’s history surprised you or changed how you understand the city?

The discovery that most surprised me was how clearly the documentary record establishes the origins of Wheeling’s Colored School.

The school was created by the Wheeling Board of Education and supported through public taxation. John W. West was its first teacher, and contemporary Freedmen’s Bureau records praised the schoolhouse, instruction and municipal financial support.

That evidence corrected a founding story that had been repeated for generations.

The discovery reinforced an important lesson: historical research cannot end with the most familiar version of a story. We must return to original documents, compare independent sources and distinguish what the record proves from what tradition has preserved.

That does not mean dismissing community memory. Oral tradition often contains valuable clues. But respecting the past requires us to label documented fact, reasonable interpretation and cherished lore honestly.

Why does local history matter, particularly when so many important community stories have been overlooked or incompletely recorded?

Local history shows us how national events were actually experienced.

The Civil War, emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Great Depression, two world wars, Brown v. Board of Education and the civil-rights movement were national developments. But their meaning becomes tangible when we see what happened in a particular Wheeling classroom, household, church or neighborhood.

Local history also makes ordinary people visible. National narratives naturally emphasize presidents, governors and celebrated leaders. Community history reminds us that change also depended upon teachers, parents, veterans, ministers, laborers, students and volunteers.

If we fail to preserve those stories, future generations may know what happened nationally without understanding how their own families and neighborhoods participated in it.

If you could preserve one photograph, document, building, object or oral history for future generations, what would it be—and why?

I would preserve a comprehensive oral-history collection featuring the voices of the men and women who attended Lincoln School and lived in Wheeling’s historic African American neighborhoods.

Documents tell us what institutions decided. Newspapers tell us what reporters considered important. Government studies provide valuable statistics. But oral histories tell us what events felt like to the people who lived through them.

I want future generations to hear former students describe their teachers, friendships, school traditions, victories, disappointments and experiences during desegregation. I want them to hear residents describe East Wheeling, Chapline Street and the people who made those neighborhoods communities.

Those voices cannot be recreated once they are gone.

What does the Foundation’s commitment to “never compromise historical integrity” mean to you personally?

It means that truth takes priority over convenience, sentiment and reputation.

We will sometimes discover evidence that complicates a beloved story. We may learn that a familiar attribution is incorrect, that an institution’s record was mixed or that a celebrated person was both admirable and imperfect.

Historical integrity requires us to present those complexities honestly.

It also means citing our sources, acknowledging uncertainty and correcting mistakes when better evidence emerges. We must distinguish among what we know, what we reasonably infer and what remains unknown.

The Foundation should never shape evidence merely to produce a more dramatic story. Our credibility will be one of our most important assets, and it must be earned repeatedly.

How can the Foundation make history meaningful and accessible to young people and future generations?

We must meet young people where they are without diluting the history.

That means using photographs, short videos, interactive maps, digital exhibits, oral-history recordings, walking tours, classroom materials and technology that allows students to explore rather than merely receive information.

It also means connecting history to recognizable places. A student may become more interested when they learn that an important teacher lived on a street they know, that a historic school stood near their playground or that a nationally significant musician once performed in their neighborhood.

Young people should also participate in the work. They can interview elders, help identify photographs, create digital stories, investigate family histories and interpret archival materials.

The goal is not simply to teach them history. It is to help them understand that they are inheritors—and future stewards—of that history.

What impact would you like to see the Foundation make in Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley over the next five years?

I would like the Foundation to become the region’s most trusted resource for African American history.

That includes creating a substantial archival collection, recording oral histories, producing carefully researched publications, developing exhibits and making historical information broadly accessible online.

I would also like to see interpretive markers and public-history projects throughout Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley so that residents can encounter this history where it happened.

Another goal is to build strong educational partnerships with schools, libraries, colleges, churches and community organizations. Historical preservation should not remain confined to archives. It should inform classroom instruction, public discussion and decisions about neighborhood development and preservation.

Most of all, I want families to entrust the Foundation with their stories because they know those stories will be treated with care, accuracy and respect.

18. What program, exhibit, publication or community partnership would you be especially excited to help the Foundation develop?

I am especially excited about creating a small but powerful interpretive museum devoted to African American life in Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley.

The museum does not need to be enormous to be meaningful. With thoughtful design, authentic artifacts and digital technology, it could connect visitors to photographs, documents, oral histories, maps and family stories.

I imagine students listening to former Lincoln School pupils describe their experiences.

Visitors could explore historic neighborhoods on interactive maps, hear local music, examine school records and learn about the churches, businesses, organizations and individuals who shaped the region.

I am equally excited about expanding our partnership with the Ohio County Public Library and working with Wheeling Heritage, East Wheeling Community Development Corporation and other regional institutions.

The dedication of the Chapline Street neighborhood interpretive sign demonstrated what collaboration can accomplish. That sign publicly recognizes a Black neighborhood whose people and institutions richly deserve remembrance. It is the kind of visible, community-centered preservation the Foundation hopes to continue supporting.

What is one fun or unexpected fact about you that your fellow board members—or our readers—might not know?

I can spend an astonishing amount of time reading nineteenth-century school-board minutes or searching digitized newspapers for a single name.

What begins as a quick search can easily become an hours-long historical investigation. One small reference leads to another article, another census record, another map and eventually an entirely new story.

There is something wonderfully satisfying about finding a person who has nearly disappeared from the historical record and gradually reconstructing part of that person’s life.

My professional career has largely involved building and operating the technologies of the future. Much of my personal passion now involves using technology to recover and preserve the past.

What message would you offer to someone considering supporting, volunteering with or becoming involved in the Foundation?

You do not need to be a professional historian to help preserve history.

You may have a family photograph, school program, church bulletin, newspaper clipping, yearbook or memory that fills an important gap. You may have technical, educational, financial, legal, artistic or organizational skills that can help the Foundation grow.

You may simply be curious and willing to learn.

Every contribution matters. Volunteers can help identify people in photographs, conduct interviews, organize collections, research names, support public programs and introduce the Foundation to families whose histories deserve preservation.

Financial support helps us protect materials, develop educational resources, record oral histories and make the collection accessible to the public.

The history of Wheeling’s African American community was created collectively. Preserving it must also be a collective effort.

We invite people to join us—not merely to look backward, but to ensure that future generations inherit a more complete and truthful understanding of the place we call home.

Looking Forward

This Foundation carries the names of Eugene and Beverly Stradwick, but it is being built for the entire community.

Their names remind us that history is not made only by the famous. It is also made around kitchen tables, inside classrooms, on neighborhood streets, in church pews and through countless acts of care and perseverance.

Our responsibility is to find those stories, protect them and share them honestly.

I am deeply grateful to our Board of Directors, strategic partners, researchers, volunteers, supporters and the families who have already trusted us with pieces of their history.

We are only beginning.

First day of classes on the FIRST day of Clay School where it all began for me. That's me on the left, my cousin/sister Domica Stradwick and my best friend for many years until he moved to North Carolina - Shannon Fuller

-T