Justice Tim Armstead passed away shortly before noon at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown following a brief hospitalization.
“Tim Armstead is a sterling example of the best of West Virginia,” said Chief Justice Bill Wooton. “In an all-to-short life his public service accomplishments are legendary.”
Armstead, also a former speaker of the House of Delegates, was 60. Armstead had been fighting cancer.
MORE: Sentiments honoring Tim Armstead pour in after life of public service is cut short
“Tim Armstead was the best,” said longtime friend and colleague Dan Greear, a judge on the state intermediate appeals court and former lead counsel in the House of Delegates. “More important than his public service he showed us how to live. He loved his wife Anna and daughter Katie and his life showed it.
“The state of politics would be much better if we learned from the example of how he lived as a genuine Christian gentleman. He was a great justice, Speaker and delegate but he was a better husband, father, friend and person.”
Armstead was appointed to the Supreme Court and took office on Sept. 25, 2018. He was elected to the Supreme Court on Nov. 6 of that year and was then re-elected on June 9, 2020, to a 12-year term. He served as chief justice in 2020 and 2023.
During his time on the Supreme Court, Armstead tried to emphasize fiscal restraint in the state’s court system. He also expressed pride in projects on family treatment courts.
Armstead was a 20-year member of the state legislature that included four years as House speaker.
“I do think that my experience as speaker will give me some insights and some experience that will help me in this role,” Armstead told MetroNews in 2020 when he first served as chief justice.
Armstead was first appointed to fill a vacant seat in the House of Delegates in 1998 by then-Gov. Cecil Underwood. He served 10 terms.
Armstead spent 2007 to 2014 as the minority leader. After that, with Republicans swinging to the majority, Armstead served as the Speaker.
Once they gained the majority, Republicans fulfilled long-sought goals such as passing right-to-work legislation, doing away with prevailing wage and making changes to West Virginia’s torts system.
For several years during Armstead’s time in House leadership, the Legislature went into special session to alleviate state budget tangles.
“Tim Armstead’s had a great run as our leader — a strong, honorable leadership,” Daryl Cowles, who served as House majority leader when Armstead was speaker, said in 2018. Cowles was reflecting on Armstead’s announcement that year that he was resigning from the Legislature.
“We’ve had a great run over the past several years. Even in the minority party we had a good run. He has presided over and been our party’s leader for a long time.”