Retired Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Herman Canady Jr. has died. A news release from the Kanawha County Commission remembered Candady Jr. as a trailblazer, becoming the first Black student at Charleston High School, the second Black graduate of West Virginia University College of Law and the first Black judge to serve on the Kanawha County Circuit Court. Gov. Jay Rockefeller appointed Canady to the position in 1982 and he was subsequently elected in 1982, 1984, 1992 and 2000. Judge Maryclaire Akers has requested a black drape cover the entrance of the Kanawha County Judicial Building in his memory.