|
From staff reports
Ron Fitzwater is the new
staff writer for the Ashe Mountain Times.
Photo by Carla Fitzwater |
Ron Fitzwater has joined the Mountain Times team and will write
for the Ashe County edition of the paper.
Fitzwater comes to the Times after a short stint as a writer/photographer
for the High Country Press in Boone.
Fitzwater was born in Beckley, W.Va. and graduated from George
Washington High School in Charleston, WV in 1981. Shortly after
high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps, serving
11 years on active duty, including service in Panama for Operation
Just Cause and in the Persian Gulf for operations Desert Shield
and Desert Storm.
Fitzwater, a disabled veteran, attended North Carolina Wesleyan
College in Rocky Mount, NC, through a grant from the Veteran’s
Administration, where he earned a BA in English with a minor in
journalism. While attending NC Wesleyan, Fitzwater served as Editor-in-Chief
and Editor-at-Large of the college’s student newspaper The
Decree.
Fitzwater is married to Chef Carla Fitzwater, Food and Beverage
Director for Appalachian Ski Mountain. The couple reside in Purlear,
NC.
The Fitzwater’s have six adult children; three sons and three
daughters. Their sons are all active duty Army soldiers who have
all served in Iraq. Their daughters are all young professionals.
Their children live across the country, from Texas to North Carolina.
The Fitzwater’s are also proud grandparents of seven grandchildren.
Fitzwater’s out-of-office interests include writing and performing
original music and Americana style folk music, hiking the many
trails that run through the High Country, reading and watching
the constant changes in the political climate.
Fitzwater will primarily cover Ashe County government and issues
for the Times and is excited about coming to the paper.
“I have been waiting for a while for an opening at the Ashe
paper because I had moved outside of Boone and was looking for
an opportunity to cover the area I am now living in. I feel very
good about being here, and I hope I can use my life experiences,
my memories of growing up in the mountains of WV and seeing a
little bit of the world while in the military, to provide our
readers with a fair and balanced view of the place we all call
home. I am looking forward to meeting and working with the citizens
of Ashe County. |
|
|
Get Firefox