Lloyd G Jackson II

Lloyd Jackson was born and reared in Hamlin, Lincoln County, West Virginia, where he attended public schools, graduating valedictorian from Hamlin High School in 1970. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University in 1974. While at West Virginia University, he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa, served as Summit (President) of Mountain, ranking student honorary, was selected a board member of the Student Foundation, and graduated magna cum laude with a 3.98 G.P.A. Lloyd attended the West Virginia University College of Law where he served on the Moot Court Board and as Editor-in-Chief of the West Virginia Law Review. Upon graduation from law school, Lloyd was admitted to the West Virginia Bar and served a one-year appointment as law clerk to United States Circuit Judge K. K. Hall in both Charleston, West Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. He returned to Hamlin in June 1978 where he practiced law in the partnership of Stevens & Jackson for eleven years. Lloyd was elected to his first political office in 1980 when the voters of Lincoln County selected him as Prosecuting Attorney. He was re-elected in 1984. In 1986, Lloyd was elected to the West Virginia Senate from the Seventh Senatorial District, representing Boone, Lincoln, Logan and Wayne Counties. He served as vice-chair and later as chair of the Judiciary Committee. Lloyd voluntarily sat out the 1990 election, but again was elected in 1994 to the State Senate. From 1995 until his departure in 2003, Lloyd served as chair of the Senate Education Committee, chair of the Finance Subcommittee on Education Funding and co-chair of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability. He was an active member of the Southern Regional Education Board where he sat on both the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee. In 2002, Lloyd served a short term on the West Virginia Board of Education. Lloyd also served as the chair of the successful 1988 and 1992 gubernatorial campaigns of former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, as well as serving as Chair of the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee from 1988 to 1990. During his legislative service, Lloyd was involved directly with the passage of many significant pieces of legislation in several subject areas, including higher education reform, scholarships and funding, K-12 education reform and environmental measures in the area of surface mining, to mention a few. He was the principal author of the PROMISE Scholarship legislation passed in 1999 and the Comprehensive Early Childhood legislation passed in 2002. Lloyd also served on the Governor’s Commission on Educational Quality and Equity which drafted the Revised Master Plan for Public Education in West Virginia. The Plan was entitled “A Process for Improving Education,” which ultimately was adopted by the Court in the famous “Recht Case.” Lloyd was a member and committee chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Mountaintop Removal and Related Mining Practices and drafted the section of the report on the “Impact on the People.” Lloyd served as a Task Force Chair for “A Vision Shared”, the state’s comprehensive plan for economic and social development. Lloyd has received a number of awards and special recognitions, including the Margaret Baldwin Award from the West Virginia Education Association, the Legislative Award from the West Virginia Federation of Teachers and the John Marshall Medal for Civic Responsibility from Marshall University. He is a Foundation Fellow of the West Virginia Bar Foundation, inc., and he holds honorary degrees from Fairmont State College, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, and West Virginia Northern Community College. In 2005, Lloyd was selected as a Trustee for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the largest foundation serving the needs of West Virginia. He serves on the Board of Trustees of West Virginia Wesleyan College and on the Board of Directors of College Summit, an organization dedicated to helping deserving students gain college admission. In 1990, Lloyd left the active practice of law to join his father, Lloyd Sr., in the family natural gas production business. During their time together, they have tripled the production of their family businesses and added substantial acreage and reserves for future drilling opportunities. Lloyd serves on the Board of Directors of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and as a Board Member and President of the West Virginia Energy Education Fund. He continues to be active in the area of public education, especially with Early Childhood Development programs. Lloyd resides in Hamlin with his wife Trina, and his two sons, L.G., a student at West Virginia University, and Ryan, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Central United Methodist Church.