May 27, 2016 - Leading an organization requires many traits: knowledge of the industry, hard work, listening to others, innovative ideas and perhaps, above all, compassion.

Ben Hatfield, a longtime coal industry executive, had those traits and more. Hatfield was found shot to death Monday at his late wife’s graveside in a cemetery in Mingo County. Police are investigating his death as a homicide.

For many in the state’s coal industry, Hatfield’s death came as a shock.

“It’s just absolutely unbelievable,” Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told the Gazette-Mail’s Ken Ward Jr. “I never heard anybody say anything bad about him. He was a true Southern gentleman.”

Hatfield, the son of a coal miner, exhibited a strong West Virginia work ethic. He worked in an eastern Kentucky coal mine to pay for college, and he graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in mining engineering. He then returned home to Mingo County to continue work in coal, taking a job with A.T. Massey Coal, the predecessor to Massey Energy. While at A.T. Massey, Hatfield worked with the man who would eventually lead Massey Energy, Don Blankenship.

After brief stints with other coal companies, Hatfield became president of the International Coal Group. The organization worked to turn around troubled mines in the northern part of West Virginia, including Sago Mine in Upshur County.

Less than a year after Hatfield joined ICG, an explosion at Sago caused the deaths of 13 miners. Only one was rescued. It was in the aftermath of the disaster that the public got a glimpse of Hatfield’s strengths.

Peggy Cohen, whose father died in the explosion, remembered “Hatfield at least faced the Sago families, submitting to public questioning by family members during a hearing that [former Mine Safety and Health Administration head Davitt] McAteer organized as part of an independent mine disaster investigation commissioned by then-Gov. Joe Manchin,” Ward wrote.

At times, Hatfield was rather candid about the industry’s need to embrace change and the affect large-scale strip mining operations have on nearby communities, Ward reported. In a state where coal has long been king, that takes courage.

Leading a coal company in a troubled economy is not an easy job, and Hatfield took his responsibilities — to his companies and this state — seriously. He worked tirelessly to advance the coal industry, mine safety and West Virginia’s economy.

As a spokesman for Murray Energy Corporation told Ward, “Ben Hatfield was a leader in the coal industry and he will be dearly missed.”

Ben Hatfield