Judge Paul A. Simmons

Paul A. Simmons was the first African American federal judge in Western Pennsylvania and was appointed to the U.S. District Court by former President Carter in 1978. He was born in Monongahela in 1921. He went to high school in the Monongahela City Public Schools and graduated in 1939 then started working. After he sustained a leg injury as a railroad worker which led to his leg being amputated in 1942, Simmons went on to pursue a degree at the University of Pittsburgh. He attended the University of Pittsburgh on a full scholarship from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation. After graduating in 1942, he went to Harvard Law School and graduated in 1949, the same year he passed the bar. He became a law professor after graduate school and taught at the South Carolina State College Law School and later at the North Carolina College of Law. He returned to Monongahela in 1956 to work as a law practitioner then joined the law firm of Tempest & Simmons, then later became a partner with the Hormell, Tempest, Simmons, Bigi & Melenyzer in 1970. Simmons belonged to the Washington County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Bar Association. Simmons retired as a federal judge in December 1990. He received many awards including the 1992 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association Minority Bar Committee and an induction into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame in 1993.