A dedication ceremony will be held Nov. 20 at the federal courthouse, Downtown, to rename the building in honor of the late Joseph F. Weis Jr., a senior judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Weis, of Fox Chapel, died last year at 91.

A North Side native, he was nearly killed in combat in World War II and rose to become one of the most respected federal judges in the United States. He had been a 3rd Circuit judge since 1973 and continued to come to the courthouse until 2006, finally retiring at age 90.

The courthouse library was named after him in 2010.

In May, President Barack Obama signed a bill to designate the courthouse as the Joseph F. Weis Jr. United States Courthouse.

The dedication ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. in the ceremonial courtroom, followed by a reception in the atrium.

The courthouse was built between 1931 and 1934 and was originally designated as the "U.S. Post Office, Courthouse & So Forth."

The post office portion closed last year.

Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com.

First Published: October 21, 2015, 2:41 p.m.