Tim Armstead, a West Virginia Supreme Court justice and former Republican House speaker, died at the age of 60, the state’s highest courtroom introduced on Tuesday. Armstead handed away after a transient hospitalization, although officers didn’t disclose particulars. A veteran lawmaker, Armstead served twenty years within the West Virginia House of Delegates, together with as speaker from 2015. He was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2018 to switch Justice Menis Ketchum, who had resigned amid a fraud case. Armstead later secured the seat via a particular election that yr and was re-elected to a full 12-year time period in 2020. He additionally held the function of rotating chief justice in 2020 and once more in 2024. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey paid tribute, calling him “a good and decent man who always tried to set the right ethical tone in all of his actions.” Born in Charleston, Armstead studied at the University of Charleston earlier than incomes his regulation diploma from West Virginia University. He started his profession working for US District Judge David Faber and later served underneath Governors Arch A. Moore Jr. and Cecil Underwood. It was Underwood who appointed him to a vacant seat within the House of Delegates in 1998, the place he went on to win reelection and rise to the put up of speaker.