In a letter to Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong Jan. 10, Lehigh County Coroner Scott M. Grim, D-ABMDI, announced his retirement.

“It is with a heavy heart that I respectively inform you that effective Thursday, February 28, 2019, after 26 years on the job, I will be retiring my position as Lehigh County Coroner,” Grim wrote in his resignation letter.

Grim said he has been offered “a very interesting opportunity and I am up for the challenge.”

Grim will join the Pennsylvania Department of Health and will be investigating violent deaths, working with other coroners, law enforcement and district attorneys to develop programs to reduce the number of these type of deaths.

He told Armstrong it has been an honor to serve the commissioners, staff and the people of Lehigh County.

Grim said he leaves the community and the county with “the best coroner’s offices in the commonwealth and the United States.”

Grim said Lehigh County was the first coroner’s office in Pennsylvania and the second in the nation to be accredited by the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners.

Ninety percent of the staff in the coroner’s office are nationally certified as medicolegal death investigators, according to Grim.

Four years ago, Lehigh County opened a state-of-the-art forensics center.

“Lehigh County will be in good hands,” Grim said.

“The memories, good, bad, happy and sad, will be with me until the very end,” Grim said. I may be leaving the office, but I’ll be around. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your coroner. I am very blessed.”

Following the announcement, Lehigh County Controller Glenn Eckhart said Grim “has been such a huge asset to Lehigh County that may never be replaced. I am proud to call him my friend.”

“It’s a huge loss for Lehigh County,” Lehigh County Commissioner Geoff Brace said on Facebook. “Nobody embodies the spirit Scott has: compassionate, caring, dedicated, thorough, experienced and humble. So many of us could disappear from elected office in Lehigh County and be replaced by somebody without being deeply missed. That’s not the case for Scott.”