DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT

Dave Arnold is a Founding Partner of Adventures on the Gorge. His love of West Virginia and its beautiful rivers motivate him to make the best possible choices for West Virginia. Dave has been an integral part in building tourism in West Virginia. He served on the West Virginia Tourism Commission for more than twenty years, through six governors, and was Chair under Governor Wise. He is currently a member of the Federal Reserve Bank’s roundtable for WV and additionally chaired the WV Hospitality and Tourism Association for 12 years.  He serves on the WV Economic Development Authority, part of which successfully attracted the Boy Scouts Summit Bechtel Reserve High Adventure Base, National Scout Camp Training Center.

Dave also spent many years working to achieve National Park status for the New River Gorge and is currently working to change the name to The New River Gorge National Park now that it has been successfully approved.

In an effort to help bring tourism and increase revenue to the region, Dave has also started focusing on development of lodging and restaurants to create a resort theme. The effort has paid off and industry revenue and employment has been going up.

Dave has a son named Jeffrey who lives in Denver, Colorado, and has been married to his wife, Peggy, since 1982.   Peggy taught in the West Virginia public school system for 25 years. They still have a family farm in Fayetteville, Ohio (Brown Co),  that has been in the family since 1939.