John William Stone, 86, of Charleston, WV, died on March 17, 2024, at Charleston Memorial Hospital.

He was born on January 14, 1938. Valedictorian of his 1955 class at Stonewall Jackson High School, he received the Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award, was the winner of the Science Clubs of America 1955 Science Talent Search, was one of 50 finalists in the 1955 Westinghouse National Science Search, and that year, achieved West Virginia’s top Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score.

He received a physics degree from Haverford College in 1960, and a physics master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin. He was an associate professor of physics at West Virginia State College (now University) in the early 1960s, and was an adjunct physics professor there in the 1990s. He was on staff at the inaugural Centennial National Youth Science Camp in 1963.

John’s greatest joy was promoting and supporting arts in the Kanawha Valley. As a young man, he danced in the corps of the Charleston Ballet, and held several leading roles in area theatre productions.

He served on the boards of Friends of Old Time Music & Dance (FOOTMAD), the Charleston Chamber Music Society, the WV International Film Festival (WVIFF), and at one time served on the marketing committee of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, the Charleston Area Alliance recognized his tireless volunteer efforts with the “Arts to the Max” Individual award.

His greatest passion was film. He worked on documentary film crews in West Virginia and New York City, where he maintained part-time residence for many years. In 1964, he was active in Mississippi’s Freedom Summer, helping to register Black voters, and working crew on a documentary of the events surrounding this important civil rights movement.

John will be remembered by his many friends as loyal, kind and generous to a fault, scrupulously honest, and unaffectedly eccentric.

He was preceded in death by his father, Attorney Arthur Guy Stone, and his mother, Greta “Gigi” Stone.

He is survived by Rhoda Gilbert, his faithful companion of some thirty-five years, and Malcolm Butler, his son. Rhoda’s son, James Gilbert, and Malcolm’s wife, Jennifer Butler, are among his immediate family, which also includes his sister, Mary Louise Stone Keesaer, niece Mary Katherine Keesaer, and nephews Robert William Keesaer II, and John Newton Stone Keesaer.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate his life on Saturday, July 6, 2024, by walking in his memory in the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta’s Funeral Parade, to be followed by a memorial potluck at a location to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made to FOOTMAD, POB 1684, Charleston, WV 25326 (www.footmad.org/donate).

Memories of John may be shared by visiting http://snodgrassfuneral.com and selecting the obituary. Arrangements are in care of Snodgrass Funeral Home, South Charleston.