A public memorial service for state Supreme Court Justice Larry V. Starcher will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday (March 19) at the College of Law, Fitzsimmons Event Hall.
Speakers include former state Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, Senior Status Circuit Judge Robert Stone, and attorney and former Morgantown Mayor William Byrne.
University law professor Charles DiSalvo, attorneys Katherine “Kitty” Dooley, Tom Rodd and Joe Long, and former Monongalia County Chief Probation Officer Phyllis Stewart Brown will also speak.
Justice Starcher, a retired Supreme Court Justice and Monongalia County Circuit Judge, passed away Dec. 24, 2022, at the age of 80.
Justice Starcher was born at home in Calhoun County on Sep. 25, 1942, and raised in Spencer.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1964 and his law degree in 1967 from West Virginia University.
Prior to being elected circuit judge in 1976, he served as an assistant to the vice president for off-campus education at WVU, as director of the North Central West Virginia Legal Aid Society and as a private lawyer.
He served as circuit judge for 20 years and 18 years as chief judge. He held all offices in the West Virginia Judicial Association, including president from 1992-93. He was a regular instructor at judicial conferences and was honored by many civic and community groups.
In 1996, he was elected to a full 12-year term on the Supreme Court of Appeals. He served as chief justice in 1999 and 2003. He retired from the Supreme Court at the end of 2008 but continued working as a senior status judge by appointment.
He also served as an adjunct lecturer at the College of Law until 2020, teaching pre-trial litigation and trial advocacy, and he advised the Lugar Trial Association.
He is survived by his wife, the former Rebecca Wiles, and three children, Mollianne, Victor and Amy.