CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County remembered a longtime circuit judge Friday with a procession through downtown Charleston.
Jim Stucky, 65, died last Sunday following a long battle with diabetes. Stucky retired last year after decades on the bench. He took medical retirement.
Stucky’s life and service were honored at a funeral service at First Presbyterian Church in Charleston followed by a procession that passed by both the Kanawha County Judicial Annex and Kanawha County Courthouse. Courthouse workers lined the streets to pay their last respects.
“There’s a couple hundred people here paying their respects,” Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said. “Everyone was here out of respect. He put a mark on this courthouse that was a good mark that we’ll always remember.”
After Friday’s service, state Supreme Court Justice Tim Armstead told MetroNews Stucky was very talented, first as a prosecutor and then as a circuit judge.
“Everyone you talked to really looked up to him and felt he did a tremendous job,” Armstead said.
The procession passed under a pair of fire trucks with crossed ladders.
“He treated everyone decently,” Carper said. “If you were a criminal defendant he treated you with respect but at the same time if people got out of hand in his courtroom, that didn’t last very long.”
After time as a prosecutor, part of which he was the elected prosecutor of Kanawha County, Stucky was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Cecil Underwood in 1997. He was last elected in 2016 before stepping down two years later.