HUNTINGTON — It’s been 55 years since Nov. 14, 1970.

On that night, fate took 75 lives from the Marshall community. Its football team, coaching staff, supporters and crew members were all lost in a plane crash on a return flight from a game at East Carolina.

Among them was Michael Prestera, a businessman and delegate-elect to the West Virginia Legislature.

Prestera’s daughter Michele Craig was the keynote speaker for the annual Memorial Fountain Ceremony on Friday at Marshall’s Memorial Student Center.

During the annual ceremony, the fountain’s waters are brought to a standstill, and flowers are laid among the base of the memorial — all 75 spires pointing skyward.

Before that moment, Craig spoke of how fate led her family to Huntington.

“Michael Prestera arrived at the University of

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