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The
Sheriff was born in Princeton, WV in 1946 with parents being Ray Vaughn
Wills, Jr. and Minnie Pauline Sutphin Wills. He lived in a small home on the old Bluefield-Princeton Road
which was located at the current entrance to the Roselawn Memorial Gardens until
he was six years old. His parents
then built a home on Washington Avenue in the city where he lived along with his
two brothers, William Michael Wills and Steven Vaughn Wills until he was 18
years of age. His public schooling
was achieved at Knob Elementary, Princeton Junior High and Princeton High
Schools graduating in 1964. During
these early formative years, Danny mowed lawns in summer months, delivered
papers for the Sunset News Observer and the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
During his high school years he landed a big job as Store Boy for Lee’s
Department Store in Princeton. He
worked there in all of his spare time until he graduated from high school.
Danny then moved to Washington, D. C. where he resided for 16 months with
his aunt and uncle, Dorothy and Marvin Sutphin.
During that time he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the
Identification Division as a Fingerprint Technician.
He will forever be grateful to Dorothy and Marvin for the time that he
was allowed to stay with them at a cost of $1 per day which included all of his
meals plus a packed lunch for work, his laundry, full run of the facilities in
their home and a great family atmosphere. During
this year the Sheriff was able to save enough money to return home and attend
Concord College receiving a BS in Chemistry in May, 1969.
Late in his Junior year at Concord, Danny achieved a dream that he had
had since the third grade of elementary school.
He was hired by the West Virginia State Police and began his training as
a Cadet Trooper on May 5, 1968. This
required taking incompletes for his junior year at Concord. He graduated 1st in his cadet class in late
September, 1968 after 22 weeks of intensive training.
His first duty assignment was Mercer County and while here was able to
finish his BS degree at Concord
College. He was transferred to
McDowell County upon graduation from Concord in May, 1969 and remained there
until September, 1971 when he resigned to attend Medical School at West Virginia
University.
During the
summer of 1972 between his 1st and 2nd years of Medical
School he returned to the State Police and was stationed at the Morgantown
Detachment from May through September, at which time he returned to school.
During that same summer he was married to his childhood sweetheart,
Barbara Ann Snider who was then employed as a chemistry teacher at Bluefield
High School. In May, 1975 Danny
graduated from the WVU School of Medicine.
He took a position at the Charleston Area Medical Center upon graduation
and thus completed a three year residency in Family Practice.
Dr. Wills, his wife and two sons, Scotty and Joey, then moved to
Bluefield where he was in private medical practice for over eight years.
In December, 1980 their third child, Mary was born.
Near the end of his tenure in private practice Dr. Wills served for two
years as the Chief of Staff at Bluefield Community Hospital.
Following the eight years of private practice he took a position in the
Emergency Department of the same hospital which he held for eighteen years. During five of those eighteen years he was the Medical
Director for that Department. In
January 2004 he retired from the Emergency Department and opened a limited
private practice once again, while running for the office of Sheriff. This venture had been Danny Wills’ lifelong dream and in
November he ran unopposed after defeating his opponent in the May, Democratic
Primary.
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