Dec 17, 2019 6 min read

Mention the name of Judge Thomas D. Gladden, and the words “exemplary” and “gentleman” keep cropping up.

He was known for his calm demeanor, never raising his voice in the Washington County Courthouse, where his measured tones resonated through the public address system in the cavernous green Courtroom No. 2 embellished with gilt and stained glass.

Hearing a defendant plead guilty to multiple bad check charges, Gladden seemed bemused. He asked the man how he could get away with this time and time again when the judge himself would be subjected to the third-degree before a bank teller.

Gladden was appointed judge on the Washington County Court of Common Pleas in 1971, becoming the youngest judge in the history of Washington County at age 38.

As an incumbent Republican, he ran in the 1973 primary and captured both his party’s and the Democratic nominations, another groundbreaking accomplishment.

Gladden became president judge in 1984, a capacity in which he served until he reached the then-mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2002, making him one of the longest-serving judges in Pennsylvania history.

Former Judge Damon Faldowski called Gladden “the longest tenured judge in Washington County history, just a good man.

“I knew him in 1970 before he was appointed judge. He was honest, fair-minded. He just wanted to do what was right.”

Gladden continued to serve as a senior judge in Washington and Allegheny County Courts of Common Pleas for another seven years.

Several other people offered their comments Monday afternoon.

Katherine B. Emery had been assistant county solicitor for exactly two days when a cataclysmic flood struck the Mon Valley on Election Day 1985.

Solicitor Melvin Bassi was in Texas, so it was up to the assistant solicitor, president judge and an election board member to decide how to handle the crisis.

Emery met Judge Gladden for the first time under those trying circumstances.

Not only were voters unable to make it to the polls, polling places were being inundated. Neither was there a way to transport ballot boxes to Washington for tabulation.

“It was very chaotic that day, but he was an island of calm and came up with a plan,” Emery, now Washington County president judge, recalled.

The plan was to close flooded polls and reschedule voting for a later date without releasing totals for countywide or flooded areas until all results could be counted.

“He was so kind,” Emery said. “He had such a good demeanor.” Other Washington County jurists may have practiced before Gladden, but Emery is the only current judge who actually served with him.

“He was so helpful to me when I came on the bench,” she said of taking her oath of office in 1996. “He was the perfect mentor for me.”

She recalled some highlights of Gladden’s judicial career: signing an arrest warrant for United Mine Workers president Tony Boyle in the the 1969 Yablonski murder case; tackling a complicated will contest among the heirs of the Ciaffoni fortune; and hearing disputes between then-Controller Patricia Beharry and the county commissioners.

“You don’t think of him as funny, but he was very witty with a dry sense of humor,” Emery recollected. “I remember him saying he wanted (defense attorney) Bob Brady to do his memorial minute because he could say the nicest thing about the worst people.”

Frank C. Roney Jr., outgoing president of the Washington County Bar Association, knew Gladden through his father, also a lawyer.

“A consummate gentleman, he really was,” said Roney, who followed in his father’s footsteps in 1979 and began practicing law.

Roney was an assistant district attorney under both Herman Bigi and John C. Pettit for eight years until 1988, appearing often before Gladden.

“He never yelled at anybody and was reasonable when doing plea agreements. He was a very fair man,” Roney recalled.

An unusual request arrived in the 1990s.

President Judge Gladden asked all judges on the Washington County bench to put aside other duties and concentrate for one month to reduce a backlog on the criminal trial list.

Pettit asked Roney to again work with the president judge.

“We ended up doing more cases than two judges combined,” Roney recalled Monday. “We worked awfully hard that month.”

Behind the scenes, visitors to Gladden’s chambers might find him this time of year clad in a sweater over his shirt and tie, drinking a cup of hot tea at his desk.

Attorney Ed Morasczyk said of the late judge, “He epitomized what a judge should be. After he left the bench, he never stopped working tirelessly for the Washington County Community Foundation, with no expectations for publicity.

“He was chairman of the allocations committee while I was chairman. His concern and his dedication to his community was unparalleled.”

Morasczyk also lauded the judge for his “sense of fair play, respect for the law and his clear desire to represent the judiciary as he saw it should be represented.

“It’s actually difficult to talk about him because he was so special. If you were looking for someone as a role model, it would be hard to find someone better.”

Patience, understanding, willingness to listen and giving everyone before him the opportunity to present a position were how Morasczyk described Gladden, whom he called “truly a shining beacon in our community, and I truly, truly mean that.”

He called the judge and wife, Rachel, “an exemplary team, a special couple, and they supported each other in everything that they did, always with a smile, always with the greatest respect.

“I was really saddened today when I heard the news.”

Washington County Court Administrator Patrick Grimm knew Judge Gladden from the Church of Covenant, which he attended regularly.

“He was a wonderful man,” Grimm said. “He was very kind and very caring and always a gentleman.

“I never had the opportunity to appear before him in practice, but he had an excellent reputation as a judge.

“They all say that his leadership when he was president judge was exemplary. He was a very well-respected and capable president judge.”

Grimm, as vice president of the county bar association, said, “If you were to create a judge from central casting, it would be Judge Gladden.”