By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
ATHENS – A Bluefield Daily Telegraph editorial cartoonist and sportswriter whose work was followed by thousands of readers across southern West Virginia and beyond passed away Monday evening at a Roanoke, Va., hospital.
Tom Bone III of Athens passed away around 9 p.m. Monday, two days after being admitted to Roanoke Memorial Carilion Hospital in Roanoke, Va., according to a social media post by his daughter, Erin Rebecca Bone Steele. He was admitted with neurological symptoms which were completely unrelated to cancer he had been battling, she said.
“My mom, my Uncle John, and I were able to be by his side,” she said. “We will be planning a memorial service at Concord United Methodist Church in Athens WV in the near future, but don’t have any details yet,” she said.
Bone was director of public information for Concord University before coming to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and covering sports for more than 19 years. He became friends with many of the Daily Telegraph staff before and after he joined the newspaper.
Bill Archer, who is now the Mercer County Commission’s president, worked with Bone for years at the Daily Telegraph while serving as a reporter and editor.
“We were very close friends and he was a friend of Evonda, my late wife, and she worked for him in the athletic department at Concord when she was a student up there,” Archer said Tuesday. “Yes, I had a great friendship for years both during his time when he was the publicist for the athletic departments at Concord and then he when he made his move to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.”
Bone was well known throughout the region as an editorial cartoonist. A show featuring 48 of his many cartoons, “Drawing Conclusions,” is currently on display at The Register-Herald’s lobby in Beckley.
“He was an artist and we worked together whenever he was creating the new Little Jimmie image that we used annually to support the Community Christmas Tree,” Archer said. “He upgraded the old one that was simply that he modernized it and made it much more readable, but he traveled through the hills and through the valleys and sometimes through the rain and sometimes through the snow to cover sports and sometimes he’d get thrust into the role of being a regular newsman, too.”
“He was a good friend and I’m really saddened to learn of his passing, but as I know him as a Christian man he’s in a better place now, although he will be missed,” Archer said.
Concord University issued a statement Tuesday after being notified about Bone’s passing Monday evening.
“To Concord University, Tom Bone was an alumnus of 1976, a retired director of public information after 20 years of service, a public address announcer in athletics since 1999, a Hall of Fame inductee in 2024, and a lifelong supporter of this institution,” according to the university’s statement. “Tom’s commitment to Concord was unwavering, and his positive spirit throughout all seasons of life was inspiring. The Mountain Lion community is in mourning, and we extend our sympathies to Tom’s family and the many others throughout the region who had the pleasure to work and serve with him.”
Other members of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph’s staff remember Bone’s work in sports, editorial cartoons and the times when he covered different topics for the newspaper.
“I worked alongside Tom for 19 years in the Telegraph newsroom,” said Andy Patton, Managing Editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and The Register-Herald. “He was a very talented writer who was just as comfortable reporting election results as he was writing a color piece from the sidelines of a Graham-Beaver football game. Tom was also a terrific artist. In fact, his cartoon exhibit is still on display here in [The Register-Herald] lobby. I was able to talk to him for a bit and reminisce while he was arranging the artwork on the walls. That was just last month. I’m very saddened to learn of his passing. Tom was a great coworker, a true gentleman and a great friend. I will miss him. I’m certain I can speak for all of Tom’s former Daily Telegraph colleagues and say that “Dr. Bone” will be dearly missed.”
Bone will be remembered for his commitment to his work.
“Tom Bone leaves behind a career and legacy of caring, simply put,” Editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and The Register-Herald Eric Cravey said. “He cared deeply about democracy, treating others right, ethics and holding those in power accountable. He will be missed by all.”