Walt Helmick, a former state senator and agriculture secretary, has died.
Helmick, 81, had been fighting cancer.
The state Democratic Party called him “a steady hand in Charleston and a tireless advocate for rural communities across the state.”
Helmick, a Democrat, was agriculture secretary from 2013 to 2017. He was defeated by the current agriculture secretary, Kent Leonhardt, in 2016.
During the 2012 race for agriculture secretary, former agency official Joe Starcher filed a suit against Helmick claiming that he failed to meet the requirement that a candidate for agriculture commissioner must have an agriculture business for at least 10 years as his chief business.
Chapter 19, Article 1 of West Virginia Code stipulates the commissioner of agriculture “shall be a practical farmer, learned in the science of agriculture, and shall have made agriculture his chief business for a period of ten years immediately preceding his election.
Helmick claimed that he had a business that would qualify, a Pocahontas County company producing bottled water. A a Kanawha County Circuit judge refused the petition, ruling Helmick could remain on the ballot and saying the Legislature overstepped its bounds by imposing restrictions on who could run for the office.
Helmick was a member of the West Virginia Senate from 1990 to 2012. He was chairman of the Senate finance committee for eight years. Earlier he was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1988 to 1989.
Helmick won a seat on the Pocahontas County Commission in 2018 and served as president.
He got his start in political office on the Pocahontas County Board of Education from 1976 to 1978.
“Walt Helmick was more than a public servant — he was a true son of West Virginia who loved this state and its people with his whole heart,” said Mike Pushkin, chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party.
“He brought wisdom, civility, and a quiet strength to his work in the Legislature and as Agriculture Commissioner. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Rita, his family, and the countless West Virginians whose lives he touched. Walt’s passing is a tremendous loss for our state.”
Helmick has worked as owner and operator of a small business and also as a school teacher.
He was president of H and S Welding Supply from 1973 to 1987. He also was president of Allegheny Medical Equipment Company from 1983 to 1986. He then worked as vice-president for Quaill Hollow Mining Company from 1987 to 1988. From 1996 to 1997, Helmick was Executive Director of Pocahontas County Development Authority.
Helmick attended Marshall University. He graduated from Menderhall School of Auctioneering in 1991. He went on to earn his bachelors degree from West Virginia University Institute of Technology in 1993. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute in 1996.
He and his wife, Rita, operated Allegheny Enterprises LLC, which includes Allegheny Lodge and a 200-acre farm in Minnehaha Springs, Pocahontas County.
“Walt Helmick never shied from innovative thinking when it came to agriculture and trying to close gaps and provide more food initiatives for the state,” said Jarrod Dean, a Williamson city official who worked with Helmick as a special projects manager.
“My favorite times were traveling with him, being in meetings with him and even flying on the governor’s jet to spur economic growth in our state by visiting agriculture industries in other states.”