Six people were chosen for inclusion in 2024 on the Civic Monument at the Wall of Honor in Withers Park.
Each person has left his distinctive and unique mark on Wytheville and Wythe County.
Herbert Gray Cooley
Born in Grayson County, Herbert Gray Cooley enlisted in the United States Coast Guard before he began his career in law enforcement with the High Point (North Carolina) Police Department, serving as a patrolman, motorcycle cop, and detective.
His time with the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office included more than 14 years as Chief Deputy under former Sheriff Wayne Pike. In 1994, Cooley achieved the rank of Chief of Police in Pulaski, where he instituted initiatives from new drug laws to revamping the patrol car design. He completed his career as the Chief of Police in Vinton.
During his career, he earned a master’s degree in criminal justice administration and graduated from the prestigious FBI National Academy.
Cooley’s civic contributions in Wythe County included serving on the Rural Retreat Lake Authority, Local Emergency Planning Committee, American Cancer Society Board of Directors, Transportation Safety Commission, and was the president of the Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the Virginia Farm Bureau, Ivanhoe Civic League, Wytheville Masonic Lodge 82 and American Legion Post 229.
Contributed photo
2024 Civic Monument Honorees, left to right: Flavius Josephus Fisher (accepted by descendant James Spraker), Walter Samuel “Sam” Crockett, Herbert Gray Cooley, John Wayne Pinnix, Larry Edward Groseclose (accepted by wife, Bonnie Groseclose), and George Wayne Pike.
Walter Samuel (Sam) Crockett
Born in Wytheville, Walter Samuel Crockett graduated from George Wythe High School in 1963. He was in the first graduating class of Wytheville Community College and then transferred to Virginia Tech. In 1967, he enlisted in the United States Army and served in Vietnam, achieving the rank of sergeant.
He then went to Fort Rucker as a helicopter dispatcher. After his time in military service, Crockett joined an Army buddy named Fred Smith who was starting a small company in Little Rock, Arkansas. Crockett helped him expand the company to Memphis, Tennessee. He resigned from that little company, called Federal Express, to become an air traffic controller. After 10 years in that field, he returned to Wytheville where he worked on his brother’s farm until he purchased a store on Main Street, first called Country Closet and later Crockett’s Cove. He and his wife, Arlene, operated the store for 13 years.
In 1986, Crockett was elected to the office of Wythe County Treasurer. As Treasurer, he updated the office by installing a new computer program that not only got tax tickets out earlier, but greatly improved tax collection and overall efficiency of the office’s services. He assisted his staff in becoming certified clerks and even used off-hours to sell county stickers throughout the county as a convenience to those who were unable to get into the office during working hours. Crockett served as the Wythe County Treasurer for 28 years until his retirement in 2015.
Crockett has been involved in numerous clubs and civic organizations. He is a former District Lions Club President with perfect attendance at the local club for 36 years. He has been chair of the annual carnival food tent for many years and has also participated in the club’s Adopt a Spot cleaning of Holston Road once a month. He received the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, which is the highest form of recognition for humanitarianism and exemplary service to others. He is a member of the VFW and American Legion and serves on the American Legion Honor Guard. He is a member and current treasurer of the local NRA. Additional local organizations Crockett has been a serving member of include the Wythe Arts Council, the Soiree Club, and the 9 th District Republican Party.
As a lifelong member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, he is a member of the Property Committee where he has been responsible for mowing the church grounds for the past five years.
Flavius Josephus Fisher
Flavius Josephus Fisher was born in Wythe County in 1833, the son of Jacob Fisher and Rebecca Rader Fisher. On his mother’s side, he descended from the Raders and the Oureys, two of Wythe County’s most prominent early German families.
In addition, he was related to the Fosters of Foster Falls and the Shorts of Plumer College. The family moved to eastern Tennessee about 1835.
Fisher demonstrated a talent for drawing at an early age, studying with arts of the time in Philadelphia before settling in the Richmond and Petersburg area in the mid to late-1850s. Two of his works were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1858. During the next few years, Fisher studied extensively with European artists in Germany, London, and Paris before returning to his home state, settling in Lynchburg in 1867.
At his Lynchburg studio, Fisher produced numerous portraits of residents and landscapes of the surrounding area. Sadly, a fire destroyed this studio in 1868.
By 1874, he had moved to Richmond and set up a studio. That same year, the Commonwealth of Virginia paid Fisher for a portrait of the immediate past governor and for copies of portraits of two other former governors. He moved once more in 1882 to Washington where he set up a studio in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He remained there for more than 20 years. Working primarily in oil, Fisher favored the darker tonalities characteristic of the Berlin and Munich art academies where he studied. In 1883, he married one of his students, Elizabeth Patten Brewer. They had one son.
Flavius Josephus Fisher died at his home in Washington in 1905. His gubernatorial portraits are part of the Virginia State Artwork Collection. The permanent collections of the Lynchburg Museum System, the Tennessee State Museum, the Valentine, and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture contain other examples of his work.
Larry Edward Groseclose
Born in Wythe County, Larry Edward Groseclose dedicated his career to public safety in his hometown. He began his career with the Wytheville Police Department in 1976 as a patrol officer. During his many years of dedicated service, he rose through the ranks to Patrol Sergeant, Investigator, Lieutenant over Investigations, Police Captain (Assistant Chief) and finally, Colonel, or Chief.
Illness forced him to retire after 25 years of service.
Groseclose was also a member of the Wytheville Fire Department for 20 years. He was a member of the Lebanon Lutheran Church where he served in various offices and was Treasurer of the Cemetery Fund. Groseclose passed away in September 2002.
George Wayne Pike
Born in Max Meadows in a family of ten, George Wayne Pike left Wythe County during his youth to serve for four years in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Japan and spent time in temporary duty in Southeast Asia and other foreign lands. He reached the highest level of rank in only two years of service and could not be promoted again without re-enlisting. His last assignment was as an instructor at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
His career in law enforcement began in the High Point Police Department where he worked his way up to second in command in the homicide division. Pike was first elected as Wythe County Sheriff in 1979 and re-elected four additional times.
During his years of service, he made significant contributions to professional law enforcement including such initiatives as a county-wide communications system so that deputies could have ready access to a dispatcher; the practice of making drug busts on Interstates 77 and 81 and using the money for better law enforcement in Wythe County; started programs to fight domestic abuse, welfare checks on the elderly and disabled who lived alone, and train deputies as emergency medical technicians; as well as many other programs. He researched, studied, and drafted a county ordinance that became the legal pathway for the county to keep monies generated by violation fines from people whom deputies had issued summons.
Leaving his elected office in 1998, he accepted a position with the Virginia State Parole Board. In 2002, he was appointed by then-President George W. Bush as a U.S. Marshall for the Western District of Virginia. He served in this role for seven years and is now retired from professional law enforcement. During his career, he received many awards from federal courts as well as federal, state and local agencies.
John Wayne Pinnix
Born in Wytheville, John Wayne Pinnix went to George Wythe High School.
Despite being born with a physical handicap, Pinnix served on the Wythe County Rescue Squad and became a certified firefighter and lifetime member of the Max Meadows Volunteer Fire Department.
