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Educational Resources:  

The 37 Judicial District of Pennsylvania

The 15 President Judges of Warren County's 37th Judicial District

15th President Judge Maureen A. Skerda
37th Judicial District
2010 to present
Maureen A. Skerda was elected as the first female judge of the 37th Judicial District and began her term of office in January 2006. Judge Skerda became the president judge on January 1, 2010. She practiced law in Warren and Forest Counties since 1988 as a staff attorney at Northwest Legal Services, Assistant District Attorney and served Court Hearing Officer from 1992 through 2005. Judge Skerda is a graduate of Rosary High School, Aurora, Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan University and the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. prior to assuming the bench, she served for 17 years as a Master in Divorce and Equitable Distribution, Support matters, juvenile dependency and delinquency matters. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Pennsylvania State Conference of Trial Judges and the National Association of Women Judges. She participates in the State Leadership Roundtable and the Guiding Principles Committee of Juvenile Dependency issues. She is active in her community and has served on a number of boards. Judge Maureen Skerda is married and her family includes her stepson, daughter-in-law and one grandson.

14th President Judge William F. Morgan
37th Judicial District
2006-2010
William F. Morgan was elected as the first secondary Judge of the District in 2001 and began his term in January 2002. He has practiced in Warren since 1967, was a district attorney, assistant district attorney and master for juvenile cases for many years. He served in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the US Naval Reserves from 1967 to 1992, retiring with the rank of captain. Judge Morgan is a graduate of Youngsville High School, the University of Notre Dame and the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has also completed the General Jurisdiction Course from the National Judicial College.
His wife, Margaret Reilly Morgan, is a retired teacher from Warren Area High School; and they are parents of four children. 

13th President Judge Paul H. Millin
Born 1944
37th Judicial District
1994-2005
Paul H. Millin was appointed by Governor Casey to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Robert L. Wolfe in 1994. Following confirmation, he was sworn into office on November 1, 1994. Judge Millin was elected in 1995 and commenced his first full term on January 1, 1996. Judge Millin was born and raised in Forest County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from West Forest High School, Maryville College, Maryville, TN, and the University of Tennessee College of Law. Following his graduation from law school, he served in the US Army from 1969 to 1971. Judge Millin is a member of the American Judicature Society, the American Judges Association, the Pa. Juvenile Court Judges Commission, the National Juvenile Court Judges Association and is a graduate of the National Judicial College. Judge Millin is married to Cynthia (Faulkner) Millin and they have two sons and a daughter. 

12th President Judge Robert L. Wolfe
Born 1926
37th Judicial District
1970-1993
Robert L. Wolfe was elected as President Judge in 1969 and began his first term January 1, 1970. He was retained for two consecutive terms, remaining on the bench for 23 years as President Judge until his retirement at the close of 1993. Since his retirement he has served as a senior judge for Warren, Forest and McKean Counties, also accepting assignments to other counties in Pennsylvania as needed. Judge Wolfe graduated from St. Bonaventure University and the University of Buffalo Law School. Prior to attending college he served in the US Air Force during World War II. During his years on the bench he was appointed to the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission where he served from 1978 through 1993. He has four daughters, two sons and fourteen grandchildren. 

11th President Judge Samuel Bonavita
Born 1917
37th Judicial District
1969-1970
Upon the retirement of Judge Alexander C. Flick Jr., Warren jurist Samuel Bonavita was appointed to complete the term left vacant. Although his tenure on the bench is the shortest in the county’s history, Hon. Mr. Bonavita is, today, credited as having been a member of the Warren County Bar longer than any other of its membership. Hon. Bonavita passed away in 2009.

10th President Judge Alexander C. Flick Jr.
1903-1975
37th Judicial District
1954-1969
Born October 31, 1903, in Syracuse, NY, he attended elementary schools in Syracuse and the Loomis School at Windsor, CT; graduated from Columbia College in 1927 with a BA degree and from the Columbia University Law School in 1930 with an LL.B; associated with the law firm of Richards & Affeld in New York City from 1930-1933.  Moved to Warren in 1934 and was admitted to the Bar in 1935.  Formed a law partnership with his brother-in-law Warren M. Stone and practiced with Stone & Flick until 1954.  Local Young Republican chairman and regional director for Warren, Forest and McKean Counties, President of the Warren County Bar Association from 1952-1954 and member of the Pennsylvania State and American Bar Association, member of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Council, appointed President Judge by Governor John S. Fine, January 20, 1954 and elected to a ten-year term commencing January 2, 1956. 

9th President Judge Allison D. Wade
1902-1954
37th Judicial District
1942-1954
On January 13, 1954, while presiding on the bench over the divorce trial of Norman Moon, Judge Wade was shot during the proceedings. 
The first assassination of a Judge in Pennsylvania.

8th President Judge Delford U. Arird
1851-1945
37th Judicial District
1922-1942
Born in Sugar Grove in 1851, Delford U. Arird was educated at the Collegiate Institute of Jamestown, NY, before serving three years in the Pennsylvania National Guard. Before being elected as President Judge of the 37th Judicial District in 1921, he served as the principle of Union Schools in Youngsville for five years.  Elected as Prothonotary and Clerk of courts for Warren County, Arird also served on the Warren Borough School Board and the City Council of  Warren.

7th President Judge Edward Lindsey
1872-1943
37th Judicial District
1920-1922
A son of Judge Wilton M. Lindsey, Edward was one of four children born after the Judge married Emma Sherman of Thetford, Vermont. Like his father, he was a partner in law with James O. Parmlee in Warren and, with him, established Parmlee & Lindsey.  He received his preparatory education in the Phillips-Exeter Academy and subsequently in the New York Law School, after which he attended Dartmouth College where he graduated.  He was admitted to the Bar in 1895, the same year he married Mildred Crosby, a daughter of Professor A.B. Crosby an instructor at Dartmouth.  A member of the Presbyterian Church, he was one of a committee of five appointed to superintend the erection of a new stone edifice for that church in 1896.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

6th President Judge Watson D. Hinckley
1854-1920
37th Judicial District
1910-1920
Senior member of the law firm of Hinckley & Rice, Watson D. Hinckley was one of the leading lawyers of Warren County and a descendant of Thomas Hinckley whose history is prominent in the Plymouth Colony.  Hinckley received his early education in Fredonia, NY, then the University of Michigan where he received a Ph.D.  He then began the study of law with Nelson B. Smiley of Bradford, PA, and was admitted to the Warren County Bar in 1882.  After locating in Warren he became a partner in Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley. After the retirement of Judge Wetmore, the firm was known as Noyes & Hinckley until 1890 when William Rice became associated with Hinckley.  A member of the Warren Shakespeare Club, he was also on the board of the Warren Public Library, the Struthers’ Library Building and an active worker for the Republican Party.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

5th President Judge William E. Rice
1860-1922
37th Judicial District
1909-1910
The junior member of the law firm of Hinckley & Rice, William E. Rice was born in Lottsville on December 19, 1860.  Receiving his education in part at Chamberlain Institute, Randolph, NY, he also attended Allegheny College.  After leaving college he taught school for seven years, and in 1882 took up the study of law in the office of Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley in Warren.  He was admitted to the bar in Warren County in 1885 and immediately began practice.  In 1888 Rice formed a partnership with Judge Brown and Hon. CW Stone in Brown, Stone & Rice which was dissolved in 1890, the same year he partnered with Watson D. Hinckley.
One of the strongest firms in the judicial district, Hinckley & Rice, a good portion of legal business was attended to by them.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

4th President Judge Wilton M. Lindsey
1841-1915
37th Judicial District
1898-1909
Born in Pine Grove Township in 1841, he entered Randolph Academy in Randolph, NY, realizing full well that he had a hard task to accomplish; he was obliged to pay his own tuition.  He worked on his father’s farm during the summer, and performed other odd jobs which would bring him money, and thereby secure enough to pay his way through college the following year.  Prior to completing his course, he enlisted in the 145th Pennsylvania Regiment serving from 1862-1863. In the fall of 1863 he entered the State Normal School at Edinboro and then in 1865 took a post as superintendent of schools in Warren County. He had always displayed a fondness for the legal profession, and while serving as superintendent, began the study of law.  Admitted to the Bar in 1872, he was elected to the State Legislature in 1876.  Lindsey was chosen by the Governor to fill the term left vacant by the death of Judge Noyes in 1898.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

3rd President Judge Charles H. Noyes
1849-1898
37th Judicial District
1891-1898
Born in Marshall, Michigan, Judge Noyes was orphaned at a very early age and left the schoolroom when barely twelve years old.  He learned the printer’s trade and then the business of a druggist, coming, soon after the age of twenty-one, to the study of law.  This was in the office of Hon. William D. Brown of Warren.  Admitted to the bar in 1871, he partnered with Lansing D. Wetmore and W.D. Hinckley in 1883. In the fall of 1890, he was elected President Judge and spent seven years and more upon the bench in a steady demonstration of the insight which placed him there.  A Democrat, he was burgess of Warren in 1877and a member of the 1884 Democratic National Committee. He was a member of the Warren Shakespeare Club, the Social Science Club and active in the Warren Public Library. A distinct literary gift possessed him, and in 1878 he published a thin volume of his poems.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

2nd President Judge William D. Brown
1823-1917
37th Judicial District
1881-1890
Hon. William D. Brown was born in Sugar Grove in 1823.  After availing himself of such educational advantages as the public and private schools of Sugar Grove and the Warren Academy afforded, he studies law in the office of Johnson & Brown and was admitted to practice in 1847. In 1849, he was elected justice of the peace for Warren borough but resigned a short time later. In the fall of 1850, he was elected district attorney and held the office for three years.  He was also a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1863-1865 and elected to the bench as President Judge in the fall of 1880. From 1851 to the time of his election as judge, he was actively and quite successfully engaged.  A lifelong resident of Warren County, Judge Brown was the son of Hon. David Brown the first Representative from Warren County to the Pennsylvania House.  ©Schenck’s History of Warren County

1st President Judge Lansing D. Wetmore
1818-1905
37th Judicial District
1874-1881
Lansing D. Wetmore was born in Pine Grove Township, the son of Lansing Wetmore who was himself an associate judge in Warren County in 1851.  Lansing D. Wetmore received his education at Union College, New York, graduating in 1841.  Immediately, he took up the study of law in Warren and while pursuing this course he taught several terms in the Smethport Academy.  He was admitted to the bar in 1845.  Later he became a partner in the firm Wetmore, Noyes & Hinckley.  In the fall of 1870 he was elected President Judge of the 6th Judicial District, the predecessor to the 37th District, which at that time included Erie, Warren and Elk counties. In partnership with his brother Charles, Judge Wetmore had an extensive lumber business.  Previous to being elected to the bench, Judge Wetmore was president of the First National Bank of Warren.  A portrait of Judge Wetmore, as well as the large portrait of his three sons, hangs in the front parlor.  ©Thirty-Seventh Judicial District, Biographies

For more information on the 37 Judicial District, visit their website at www.warrenforestcourt.org

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