By Linda Williams

Success can be measured in many ways: happiness, wealth, contentment, raising a good family. A definite majority of Northern Bedford graduates are successful in one way or another, but there are a few who have made headlines.

One of them grew up in my grandparents’ old house across from the church in Waterside.  Grandma and Grandpa Clapper (Viola and Lloyd) loved that house where they moved after leaving their farm in Texas Corner.  Grandma was thrilled to have running water and a bathroom. She raised beds of perennial flowers, canned numerous jars of sweet pickles, and made millionaire fudge.  She collected ceramic birds and loved to quilt.

The house was the scene for family dinners and holiday gatherings. At their deaths, my grandfather and my uncle had their caskets in the living room. When Grandpa died suddenly in 1952, Grandma continued to live in the house until 1956 when she sold to the Donald Huntsman family.

Donald and Pauline raised four children in that house.  Pauline passed away recently and was most assuredly proud of all her children. Among the four was Kenneth Huntsman, a 1970 graduate of Northern Bedford High School and a cofounder of AOL, America Online.  Brother Don says that Ken modestly explains, “I was at the right place at the right time.” Huntsman began his career with Telenet Corporation where he developed Telemail which became Sprint, a successful electronic mail system. He was a senior scientist at the Sprintmail firm.

In 1983, Huntsman joined Control Video Corporation to create communications products for Atari VCS. Together with group of co-workers, they founded Quantum Computer Services in 1985.  Later that year, QCS launched its first online service. Four years later, it unveiled a service called American Online which became the name of the company.

Holding various positions at AOL, he eventually rose to the position of AOL Fellow and served as a chief technical consultant to the operations group of AOL Networks in Reston, Virginia. He retired in 2007. In 2006, he was awarded the Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award, the highest honor bestowed by the University of Tennessee.

Throughout the years he gave back to his communities by coaching volleyball at his daughters’ school. He has enjoyed golfing and snow skiing and is presently living in Colorado.  As an alumnus of Northern Bedford, Ken provided funding for the football field. He has also given generously to various projects in Martinsburg where his mother lived for the last 28 years.

At a recent reunion, Ralph Scott mentioned that Ken had been a member of a computer club started by Ross Miller.  Computers have come a long way since those days. While Kenneth Huntsman is not a household word or a name tossed about in general conversation, he is definitely a star in the computer world which today is taken for granted.  That is what an alumni group is all about, remembering, recognizing, and giving back to the future generations.