10/24/2026
Yesterday, we introduced you to our upcoming First Friday at Five Open House featuring local author Carolyn Velletri. Today, we’re delighted to introduce our second featured author, R. Morgan Armstrong!
Morgan has written a series of mysteries we think you’ll love. And as you’ll discover in his bio below, he has just the right background to craft some wonderfully intriguing “whodunits”!
R. Morgan Armstrong, born in Martinsville, Virginia, was a prosecutor, trial attorney, and General District Court Judge there. He attended Virginia Military Institute and received his BA degree from Duke University and his law degree from the University of Richmond. During law school, he worked summers as a park ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers at Philpott Dam near Martinsville, Virginia, and in the summer of 1972, as a law student police officer for the City of Virginia Beach.
As a prosecutor, he helped organize and supervise a special police unit composed of Virginia State Troopers, Henry County Deputies, and town and local police officers. During his twenty-year tenure as a General District Court judge and judge designate for the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for the Counties of Henry and Patrick and the City of Martinsville, he wrote the Unauthorized Practice of Law section of the Virginia District Court Judges Bench Book.
He joined the Wintergreen Ski Patrol of the National Ski Patrol (NSP) in the fall of 1980, served in every line officer position, and most instructor positions. He was elected director of the Southern Division, then elected to two terms on the national board of directors for the NSP, chaired the Governance Committee, and in 2019, was inducted into the National Ski Patrol Hall of Fame. August 2025, he received the NSP's highest award, the Minnie Dole Award, #33.
Upon his retirement from the bench, he moved to Wintergreen Resort with his wife, Jo Ann. He enjoys working with the local ski patrol and writing mystery novels.
Join us November 6 from 5 - 7.
