Wise ran track and field in high school – the half-mile and mile – and was elected vice president of the student body.

[4] After leaving Duke, Wise applied to law school, working as an aide in a California mental health facility until he was accepted at the University of Houston.

Wise also advocated for coal miners seeking workers compensation and supported community renewal efforts for the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster[8] victims.

[9] Wise began his political career in 1980, running for public office against State Senate President William Brotherton[10] in the County Democratic primary in Kanawha.

[14] He came out of a highly competitive Democratic primary victorious and continued on to beat incumbent Republican congressman Mick Staton with 58 percent of the vote.

[19] In this same period Wise joined the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which allowed him to obtain federal aid for road projects in West Virginia.

During his time in congress, Wise also served as a member on the House Committee on Education and Labor and on the Democratic Party Leadership team.

[21] In 2000, after 18 years in congress, Bob Wise left his now secure seat and returned to West Virginia to win the Democratic Primary for governorship with 63 percent of the vote.

[26] Shortly after taking the position of governor, Wise had to deal with widespread flooding in record amounts throughout southern West Virginia.

[28] In education, Wise pushed for the funding of his Promise (Providing Real Opportunities for Maximizing Instate Student Excellence) scholarships.

[30] Wise also set up the Governor's Hotline for Safer Schools, and put forward legislation to bring a in pre-Kindergarten programs that would cover all the state's four-year-olds.

In one instance, the state issued $215 million in grants to spur $1 billion investment in projects, such as the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, Cabela's, the Marshall University Biotechnology Development Center and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium.

"[46] Philip Frye, the husband of Angela Mascia-Frye, 35, a state worker, filed for divorce April 7, 2003, claiming she'd had an affair with Governor Wise.

[50][51] Since 2005, Wise has been president of Alliance for Excellent Education, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those who are traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship.

[53] Under Wise's leadership, the Alliance has been a leading advocate for major education policy issues such digital learning, adolescent literacy, increasing high school graduation rates and the Common Core State Standards.

[58] It also works to promote awareness of the kinds of reform necessary by hosting seminars, educational events, and presentations of national and state-level date about the impact higher levels of academic achievement might make cross the country.

The Center's mission was to examine ways technology and, specifically digital learning, might provide at-risk students with resources for ensuring they'd be prepared for graduation and college-level success.

[63] Bob Wise and Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel discussed ways to bring broadband connectivity to students beyond the classroom including a program in Coachella Valley Unified School District that equips school buses with wireless routers, and then parks the buses in low-income communities allowing students to remain connected to the Internet in off-school hours.

[69] In 2015, Project 24 was succeeded by the Future Ready Schools initiative, and hosted thirteen regional summits serving 463 districts and more than 2,200 education leaders representing over 4 million students.

The group met for several months and then released the study “10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning.” [80] The following year, Wise was included in the Non Profit Time's “Power & Influence Top 50” list of executives in the nonprofit sector.

[81] Alongside the AEE and the NBPTS, the former governor also serves on the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation and Performance Reporting which puts together rigorous accreditation standards for teacher preparation, the Gordon Commission, a commission of experts formed to examine the future of education, and the Business Roundtable's Springboard Project which makes policy recommendations for equipping Americans with the skills they need to make in today's workforce.

In 2007, Members of the American Cancer Society gave Wise a ribbon in honor of his fight for survival as well as for increases on outdated tobacco taxes.

The organization's Board of Directors has 22 members and operates in the style of a town hall meeting in which various leaders in the fight on the disease gather several times year to discuss cancer-related topics.