Here is a worthwhile article by Dawn Miller in the Opinion section of the Sunday Gazette-Mail. It provides a brief glimpse into Fred Armstrong's nearly 30 years of stellar service.

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Dawn Miller November 04, 2007

Armstrong had keen foresight

The day before the Manchin administration fired Fred Armstrong from his 22-year job as director of state Archives and History, Armstrong had arrived at work at 8 a.m. and was still there at 6:30 p.m., working on employee evaluations.

I have occasionally found him there at 8 p.m. The archive keeps latish hours for people like me, who work all day and have to squeeze their personal research in after work. The late hours also serve people who drive in from all over the state and beyond to work on their family histories or other projects.

I have a lot of respect for Fred. I have known nothing but professional and prompt service from him and his staff at the archive, whether I visited as some kid right out of college trying to help my aunt track down a certain Civil War ancestor, or called his office as a Gazette editor, looking for help on deadline. It was all the same to them.

A security officer escorted Armstrong out on Thursday, after he finished proofreading the newsletter he was working on. He was shown out as if he were some kind of common thief, rather than the gentlemanly scholar who has helped thousands of genealogists, Civil War researchers, West Virginia historians and others who use the state?s priceless archives to answer questions about the past.

Armstrong thinks he was fired by Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith for questioning the state?s planned changes for the Cultural Center, although he has never done so publicly. As a professional archivist in charge of a vast and complex collection that requires dedicated library space, he told his bosses about a year ago that he was concerned the proposed changes might be destructive for the state?s archive. He would have been remiss if he didn?t share his concerns.

In 2005, Armstrong worked with Salem-Teikyo University to remove the papers of Sen. Jennings Randolph from a storage room where 50-gallon trash cans collected the rain that leaked through the roof and dead beetles were two inches deep on the floor. Snow blew into the room onto the documents when he visited.

He led the effort to pack the documents into 1,000 clean boxes and loaded them on tractor-trailers that carried the collection to Richmond. There, on June 20, 2005, he helped to unload the boxes at a records center where they would be decontaminated by freezing. It was not a holiday in Virginia, so offices were open.

The whole effort took a year and a half, but eventually the documents arrived in Charleston, where staff are gradually cataloging them. So far, they have worked through 19 boxes of photos. There are speeches, including original copies of remarks, letters, memos and video.

Armstrong worked out agreements with WSAZ-TV in Charleston, WTRF-TV in Wheeling and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, among others, to collect old footage before it was lost. He made arrangements for new footage to be forwarded to the archive as it becomes old and the stations retire it.

He was given responsibility to oversee a grant program for counties in 2000. Each of the 55 county clerks pays a fee. Each year, a board makes grants from the fund to individual counties to help them assess their archive needs and to make improvements.
?That?s really starting to work,? he said.

Armstrong helped to establish the Mining Your History Foundation in 1995, whose volunteer members are interested in family history. They have made about $7,000 worth of donations to the archive and volunteer their time as well.

He installed the ceiling in the archive reading room himself because ceiling tiles were falling on the heads of patrons, the state?s General Services division couldn?t get to the repair soon enough, and it would have cost more than $40,000 to contract it out. He painted the rooms as well.

Because it is a personnel matter, Secretary for Education and the Arts Kay Goodwin, like others in the Manchin administration, says she cannot say why Fred was treated so shabbily. I understand that Armstrong was a will-and-pleasure employee. But is this how nearly 30 years of stellar service is rewarded?

Goodwin has assured me that the collection will not be harmed, that it will not even be moved. Nor will the staff offices be moved. Researchers will enjoy service that is just as good or better, she said. Only the reading rooms will be combined. A gift shop will be restored to the Cultural Center and a caf? will be added, but there won?t be any cooking in the building.

I have a lot of respect for Goodwin, too. I?d like to trust her judgment.

When Armstrong was pushed out on Thursday, the archive staff were in the process of converting birth, death and marriage records into electronic files. They are also combing through old newspapers to catch any missing names that should have been on the Veterans Memorial at the Capitol. There are already about 1,300 changes to be made to the panels of engraved names, mostly additions.

On his last day on the job, Armstrong consoled the guard who apologetically showed him out, and gave his security escort a ride home.

Miller, The Charleston Gazette?s editorial page editor, can be reached at 348-5117 or at dawn@wvgazette.com.

I received an e-mail message originating from Joy Doss, a former student of Fred's from a graduate class at Marshall. She has established a website encouraging participation in a protest of his firing.

For details follow this link:

http://justiceforfred.googlepages.com/