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Retiring Superior Court Judges Bid Farewell
By Daniel Casciato
For The Lawyers Journal
December 27, 2002

There comes a time in a man's life when he should pick up the marbles before he loses them," said Judge John G. Brosky when asked about his impending retirement. He smiled but as he sat in his chambers amidst stacks of storage boxes and its stripped walls, one could not help but notice a small trace of sadness in one of the county's most respected and well-liked judges.

Brosky and his colleagues, Judge William F. Cercone and Judge John P. Hester, will be saying farewell after serving a total of 134 years of judicial service, including 80 on the Superior Court. Their retirements are a result of recent changes to the rules governing retirement of senior judges. Brosky graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and received his L.L.B. and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He also received an honorary doctorate of public service degree from LaRoche College in 1996. During his tenure as judge, he was central to the emergence of decisional law and procedures in the developing stages of family law in the state.

He serves on the Board of Visitors of the Law School at the University of Pittsburgh the Family Law Section and Professionalism Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association the Appellate Practice Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association and he is a fellow of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation and a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He is past president of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges and past national president of the Air Force Association.

Among his awards are the St. Thomas More Award in 1989 the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge in 1990 Man of the Year, Kosciuszko Foundation, 1991 Man of the Year in Law and Government, by Vectors/Pittsburgh in 1994 the Pride of Pennsylvania Award by Commissioners of Allegheny County in 1995 and the Dr. Samuel Francis School of Law Award in 2000. He served in the South Pacific during World War II and retired as a major general in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.

Brosky was appointed to the Allegheny County Court in 1956. Then, in 1960, he was appointed to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and elected to a full term in 1961. He was re-elected in 1971. Brosky served as administrative judge of the Family Division from 1970 until he was elected to the Superior Court in 1980. He and his wife, Rose, have three children.

Cercone, born in Stowe Township, received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1936 and his L.L.B. from Duquesne University School of Law in 1941. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy with the amphibious forces in the Pacific. He was a former assistant district attorney of Allegheny County, where he won fame by virtue of his successful prosecution of Steve Nelson, a communist who compromised American security by furnishing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. He is past president of the Pennsylvania Judicial Board of Inquiry and Review. He was a judge on the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County from 1956 to 1968.

Elected to the Superior Court in 1968, he became president judge Jan. 2, 1979, whereupon he arranged for the American Judicature Society study of the work of the Superior Court. As a result of his efforts, a referendum was approved by the voters of Pennsylvania to increase the court by eight additional members. Cercone and his wife, Amelia, have eight children and nine grandchildren.

Hester is a native of McKeesport. He received his B.A. from Duquesne University School of Law and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Hester lectured at the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Rome, and at the International Institute of Comparative Law in Rome.

He served as a trustee of Mercy Hospital and the Mercy Hospital Foundation. He also is a recipient of the St. Thomas More Award, and was selected by Duquesne University as one of the university's 100 outstanding graduates. He was an original member of the Allegheny County Hospital Financing Authority where he served as vice-president. He is president of the Stephen Foster Community Center and the C.Y.A. He is chairman of the Allegheny District Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Hester served on the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County from 1960 to 1977 and as administrative judge of that court during 1976 and 1977. Prior to ascending the bench, he was a deputy attorney general. He was elected to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in 1977 and served the commonwealth in that capacity until his retirement in 1983, when he was designated as a senior judge by the Supreme Court. Hester was a prot g of local legendary civic leader, Judge Samuel A. Weiss, whom he credits with influencing him on entering the law profession and to a certain extent on eventually becoming a judge.

"I was so impressed with Judge Weiss and what he was able to do in the legislature. He was so forceful and articulate and helped enact some legislation that was long overdue in Pennsylvania, such as the Workers Compensation Act and the act giving labor the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers," he said. "Judge Weiss was doing so much good and I was so impressed with it. He made quite an impact here."

Weiss also had a minor influence on Brosky in his decision to enter the law profession.

"I always had a yearning for the law since my high school days," said Brosky. "I had the privilege of watching some outstanding judges in my day like Judge Michael Angelo Musmanno and Judge Weiss, and great defense attorneys such as Roy Funk and Jim Ecker's father." "I always loved and was fascinated by the legal profession," he said. "I decided to become a judge because I thought I had become a great lawyer in front of a jury, and wanted to continue to make a good contribution to my fellow man."

Cercone credited a lot of people for inspiring him to become an attorney, but his greatest influence was his uncle and mentor, Musmanno. "He lived about two doors away from where we lived when I was growing up and he used to tell me all the time about his experiences as a judge. He really inspired me to take up the law." Brosky said that there is no doubt that he will miss coming into work everyday. "I had a very fruitful career. Forty-six years on the bench," he said.

"There was never a dull moment. As a judge, you sometimes saw events happen that even an author of a book couldn't dream of writing how some of these incidents had taken place." "It was a very fascinating experience. It was very refreshing and stimulating to look forward to because you met all sorts of interesting people," he said. "It also gave me a better understanding of human nature." The other two judges agreed. "It takes a special quality of understanding human nature to become a judge," said Cercone.

"My advice to young attorneys today would be to prepare to undertake a task that requires a great deal of work, a great deal of patience and a deep understanding of human nature," added Hester. Cercone said he hopes to see more young people entering the legal profession. "It's a proud profession. The law gives hope to those who would have no way of enjoying the right to put forth their complaint before a court or jury. The law gives us all protection," he said. "A lawyer is a symbol of that protection. You need only to look over history and examine the work of great lawyers - the Clarence Darrows, Felix Frankfurters, Oliver Wendell Holmes-to see the impact they made from protecting individuals," said Cercone.

Hester added, "It gives you an opportunity to make government work and to demonstrate that judges and lawyers can do an outstanding job and make the system function to its highest level." As far as future plans go, golf is certainly in the forecast for Cercone. "I'm a golfer, you know," he said. "So I want to play a little golf. And of course, anyone my age looks forward to travelling and reading books I never had a chance to read before." Hester said he doesn't have any plans at the moment.

"I just want to relax for awhile. It'll be an adjustment for me since I've been in and out of an office since I started practicing law in 1945. Now, I'm just going to take it easy and see what transpires," said Hester. Brosky will keep busy with all of his community service activities. "I'll miss the law, but the volunteer work I do will help keep me current. I had always set aside evening hours to help our fellow citizens in Allegheny County or the state of Pennsylvania. So I also did speeches to veterans, athletes, and community service groups. I still administer oaths to school directors, superintendents, council members and so forth. Of course, I'll try to find time to relax on the side." "I'll try to maintain that kind of schedule, although my wife says she wants no business conducted at home," he said, laughing.

It is Brosky's belief that community service is a necessary qualification to those interested in becoming a judge someday. "In addition to developing your knowledge of the law, it's important that you participate in a leadership way in your community," he advised. "But it's not enough just to be a member of your organization. I think that by becoming a chairman of a committee or a president of an organization, you learn to develop the skill of listening to different viewpoints. That is essential whether you want to be a good lawyer or judge. You can only do that, not by sitting in the audience as a member, but exercising a position of leadership in which you are called upon to make a decision," said Brosky.

Cercone offered this final piece of advice to future judicial candidates. "You must first have the necessary knowledge, background, and appreciation of the law and have demonstrated through your work the high caliber of performance and exhibition of intelligence that would make a voter satisfied that he or she is voting for a person, who in their estimation represents, all the qualities and the understanding of the great challenge being bestowed upon them."

"Judges have a tremendous challenge in doing his or her work so that it stands as a pinnacle of accomplishment in justifying the law as a basis for our freedoms and for our rights," said Cercone. "It's been a great experience and I'll miss it, but there'll be many more good ones to follow in our footsteps."