W.Va. Archives Firing Reverberates

A spotlight remains on last week's abrupt, as-yet-unexplained firing of Fred Armstrong from his 22-year post as director of West Virginia's Archives office.

Phil Kabler questions Armstrong's sacking by Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith in The Sunday Gazette-Mail.

"Clearly, this was a bald-faced pre-emptive strike to remove someone who might emerge as a voice of opposition as the Manchin administration moves forward with plans to convert the Cultural Center archives library into a café/catering service/mini-Tamarack gift shop," Kabler opines.

"Although it’s standard policy when a state employee is fired, the fact that Armstrong was escorted out of the Cultural Center with a security guard should be regarded as a slap in the face to all employees who have dedicated years of service to the state."

Kabler also offers, as his quote of the week, Armstrong's take on his former boss: "“He’s a washed-out opera singer who can’t administer unless it’s in a dictatorial way.”

Kabler lays blame for the axing at the feet of Gov. Joe Manchin. "Firing a state employee with just shy of 30 years of service to the state isn’t going to help Manchin’s already strained relationship with rank-and-file state employees," he writes.

"(F)or a usually image-savvy administration, why didn’t Manchin let Armstrong get his 30 years in, then send him off with a big retirement party and accolades?"

Gazette Editorial Page Editor Dawn Miller, meanwhile, chronicles Armstrong's tenure at Archives in a Sunday column. Armstrong rescued the official papers of U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W.Va., from certain ruin, convinced regional television stations to send Archives their footage when it becomes too old to keep, ran a grant program to help counties preserve their archived records, and even repaired a falling ceiling in the agency's reading room when General Services proved unable to get to the task in time.

A revealing anecdote closes Miller's column: "On his last day on the job, Armstrong consoled the guard who apologetically showed him out, and gave his security escort a ride home."