By Gary Lee Stuber
Don Jarvis is an American Hero. The 96-year-old former Navy Aviator and Clay County advocate had a stroke about five years back and suffers presently with memory issues, but looked bright eyed and bushy tailed with his third wife Keyota Jarvis acting as his advocate, and at times, his voice.
Don was born to Greely and Gladys Engle Jarvis. She was a school teacher and Greely operated a store in Amma in Roane County before the interstate would one day divide their property. He had one brother, John, and a sister, Betty. They are both deceased. Don graduated out of Spencer High School in 1941 and went to Potomac State University for a couple of years and joined the Navy. He was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis Maryland. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1951. He started flight training upon graduation. He would become a flight instructor and maintenance officer before he went to flight photo school where he became an aviator. Unlike the digital, computer-assisted photography of today, this was old school. Taking photos of sensitive areas in the world on film cameras, at various heights and weather conditions. He worked flying reconnaissance taking sensitive, sometimes classified, photographs of some challenging places in the world as part of the Photographic Squadron in 1962. Cuba. Central America, Europe, North Africa and Bucharest. He took a photo of an atomic bomb test once over water (location not elucidated).
On February 12, 1967 he was shot down over water in Vietnam. He was rescued by an Air Force pilot who previously had been rescued by a Naval pilot, technically ‘returning the favor.’ For years on the anniversary they sent each other small gifts. He was in the water a little while because when they came to rescue him they took small arm fire from the bank. They rescued the navigator first, and then came back for Don, who had broken a shoulder by gun fire, by bringing reinforcements.
He retired after 35 years from the Navy in 1981 as a Captain and moved into Maysel, marrying his second wife, Jean Jarvis, who was principal at Clay Elementary for years. After her passing, Don would marry a third time to Keyota. She has three sons who survive, and Don has two children who survive as well, son Donald Jeffrey Jarvis who lives in Florida, and a daughter Alice Jarvis who worked at Dupont in South Charleston for years and now teaches at a University in Delaware. Don and Keyota both had four children and have outlived their other children.
Don worked for many years for conservation. He would work for Parks and Recreation, but was involved in many volunteer organizations as well. He was a Mason. He was president of the Lions Club, worked every season for years on the Clay County Apple Festival, and was instrumental in getting the Clay County Pool. He would scrub the pool out and start filling it with water at night in the spring. It took a long time to fill the pool that way. In the mornings he would have to race back to shut the water off so the town of Clay could have water. He was the only one certified at the time to apply the chemicals to the pool. He called Bingo every week for years, was the driving force behind the town Christmas Parade and children’s party.
And on top of all this, Fran King brags that Don was the single driving force behind the location, the clearing and final construction of the Clay County Park at Maysel. A panoramic photo shows Don pointing out at an empty land that would one day in 1999 be dedicated as Maysel Park. While land was donated by a number of Clay County landowners, including Jim Haynie, it was Don and the volunteers he pressed into service that did the heavy lifting. Don would go out to the park most nights, just a short drive up the road from his house, to do landscaping or mowing. Originally the plan included much more than is presently there. The money never arrived to do the ambitious project that the blueprints drew up. They did what they could. Don went out to Amish country to get good playground equipment built for the park. The day it all arrived, they returned his check for the job. When they saw what he was doing, they donated the beautiful playground equipment.
Don was like that, he could inspire others to give of themselves to the cause. Many of these institutions and volunteer organizations still thrive in Clay County because Don brought many of the present volunteers and office holders up under his wing. His own wife was pressed into his old position on the Conservation Board, because of her willingness to continue the good work her husband can no longer do. She says, “He knew me, but not well, and shortly after the death of his second wife, he saw me at GoMart and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come up to the park and help us this weekend.’ And I did. I spent a lot of time up there working at the park and eventually he asked me to marry him. That was fifteen years ago.”
Don’s influence is felt even at home. Keyota says that her two boys who were still in high school when she married Don, joined the Navy after graduation because of Don’s influence. Hero. Patriot. Philanthropist. Volunteer. Dedicated conservationist. Father.
Keyota says, “They don’t make men like that anymore.”
This county owes Don Jarvis a lot of gratitude. He doesn’t get many visitors these days. And sometimes he won’t remember those who do. But the more years that pass, the fewer the people who remember the man they owe so much too.
