CHARLESTON – Former state Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely has died. He was 79.
Neely, who served on the court from 1973 to 1995, also was a former state legislator. He also ran for another term on the bench earlier this year but was unsuccessful. He was a partner at Neely & Callaghan.
He recently had been diagnosed with liver cancer. He died November 8 surrounded by family and friends.
“Justice Neely was a wonderful man, great legal mind and a good and loyal friend to our family,” U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said in a statement. “Our thoughts go to Carolyn and the entire Neely family.
“I know Charlie and I will miss seeing Richard and Carolyn on their daily walks around Charleston. What a loss.”
Neely is widely considered one of the most colorful personalities in state government history.
In 1985, Neely garnered headlines when he fired his Supreme Court secretary after she refused to babysit his 4-year-old son. Then, Neely resigned as chief justice and gave the woman back her job. He received a public admonishment for that.
A year later, he filed a $38,000 lawsuit against TWA when his luggage arrived 70 minutes late at JFK in New York, $3,000 of that amount was listed as a speaker’s fee because he said he told other passengers about the delay. He settled out of court for $12,500.
“At the end of the day, voters are going to listen to what I tell them is wrong with the court system,” Neely told MetroNews host Hoppy Kercheval during an Oct. 9 interview on “Talkline.” “It's sort of like Donald Trump. Nobody asks whether Donald Trump does or doesn't grab women from behind or make racist comments.
“What they want to know is, 'Is Donald Trump going to make America great again?' If they think he is going to make America great again, they don't care about his personal life.”
Neely graduated in 1964 from Dartmouth College in 1964 and from Yale Law School in 1967. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 and was awarded the Bronze Star. He is the grandson of Matthew M. Neely, who served as governor and U.S. Senator.
Neely started his own law practice in 1970 in Fairmont and was elected to the Legislature before winning a seat on the state Supreme Court in 1972.
Funeral arrangements are pending. Gov. Jim Justice said he'll order flags to be lowered to half mast to honor Neely.