Malford “Bo” Trumbo was immortalized Friday afternoon in a special Botetourt County Circuit Court proceeding when his portrait was unveiled to hang from now on in the courtroom.
Trumbo retired at the end of 2017 as a circuit court judge, and as has been tradition, a portrait was commissioned to hang in the courtroom. The Botetourt County Bar Association worked to commission the painting that was done by Roanoke artist Adam Johnson.
It will hang on the east wall next to a portrait of Trumbo’s predecessor, the late George Ed Honts Jr.
New Circuit Court Judge Joel Branscom presided from the bench with Trumbo, who was just recently certified as a substitute judge.
The ceremony included remarks by Botetourt Bar representative and Commonwealth’s Attorney John Alexander and Branscom, who is the former Commonwealth’s Attorney. It also included remarks and a presentation by the court bailiffs who presented a plaque with two gavels, one of them broken, to memorialize one of the few times Trumbo ever used a gavel in his courtroom and broke it.