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.