James H. Harless

James Howard Harless (October 14, 1919 – January 1, 2014), better known as Buck Harless, was an American coal and timber operator and philanthropist, who was renowned in the area of his hometown of Gilbert, West Virginia, for his extensive contributions to schools, churches, healthcare and education programs.

Starting out his career working with coal mining and coal preparation, Harless saved up money and eventually invested in a sawmill where he produced mining equipment. After having managed his lumber company for several years, he sold the business to Georgia-Pacific and signed a non-compete clause which disallowed him from producing timber in the area for a period of 10 years. He instead established sawmills in South America and Central America, and returned to the mining industry as an executive. He also founded and acquired several other companies in a number of different industries, which were managed under the conglomerate International Industries. Outside of his own companies, he was active in banks and healthcare systems, and sat on the boards of colleges and universities, including West Virginia University, Marshall University, Davis & Elkins College and Concord University.

A staunch Republican supporter, Harless was instrumental in allowing George W. Bush to win the traditionally Democratic state of West Virginia in the 2000 presidential election, in an upset victory which awarded Bush the narrow margin by which he defeated Democrat Al Gore. Harless had undertaken a large fundraising effort to prevent Gore from winning, as he feared that his prominent environmentalist policies would destroy the coal industry and, in turn, West Virginia's coal-heavy economy. Harless had previously been influential in the elections of governors Cecil H. Underwood and Arch Moore in the 1980s and 1996, in some of only a few governors' elections since the Great Depression where West Virginia voters chose the Republican nominee.