Sunday, February 23, 2025, 11:45PM |  37°
MENU
Advertisement
Judge Donald E. Ziegler watches Robby Chung, 5, of Murrysville display his new flag during a Citizens Recognition Ceremony in U.S. District Court in October 1994. Robby's mother, Bong Chung, formerly of South Korea, was among the 55 immigrants who became American citizens during the monthly ceremony.
4
MORE

Sports were Donald Ziegler's passion -- until a gym teacher had another suggestion

Post-Gazette

Sports were Donald Ziegler's passion -- until a gym teacher had another suggestion

Oct. 1, 1936 - Sept. 21, 2019

Growing up in Dormont, Donald E. Ziegler loved pitching a baseball, shooting hoops and dreaming of being a basketball coach. Then a high school gym teacher took him aside and suggested he attend law school instead.

That decision led the son of a meat salesman to study law from 1958 to 1961 at Georgetown University, where he made the law review. In Washington, D.C., after classes ended at 1 p.m., the future federal judge watched arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I remember Bill Brennan real well, Earl Warren, Hugo Black, William Douglas, all the great names of the legal profession,” Judge Ziegler told Pittsburgh author Barry Alfonso for an oral history in 2009.

Advertisement

Judge Ziegler, 82, who served on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, died Saturday at his Upper St. Clair home.

A pipe-smoking pragmatist whose common sense and penetrating intellect cut to the essence of cases, Judge Ziegler enjoyed respect and popularity while setting the highest standards for collegiality and professionalism.

“There was never any kids’ table in his courtroom. If you were a lawyer, you got treated with professionalism and respect. He was thoughtful and effective and efficient,” said U.S. District Court Judge Mark Hornak, chief judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania. 

He also liked to sentence creatively. In 1984, Adolfo D’Achille and Dominic Lombardo, partners in Pizza Roma restaurant, pleaded guilty to federal income tax evasion. Besides ordering a brief prison sentence and fining each man $5,000, Judge Ziegler ordered them to deliver meals five days a week for an entire year to the Light of Life Rescue Mission on the North Side. 

Advertisement

Usually decisive, “he would never hesitate to change his ruling if he thought he was wrong,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Philip Ignelzi, who clerked for Judge Ziegler before becoming a federal prosecutor.

He said his mentor regularly gave money to homeless people and volunteered for Meals on Wheels when he retired.

Judge Ziegler believed lawyers should dress like lawyers and favored suits and hats, wearing straw boaters in the summer and fedoras in winter. Known for urging lawyers to settle cases, he rang a cow bell on his desk when he succeeded.

“He was the happiest person in the world because he got another case off the docket and could move on,” said Ken Gormley, who clerked for the judge before becoming an author, legal scholar and president of Duquesne University. 

“I would never have gone anywhere in life of significance without being mentored by Judge Ziegler,” Mr. Gormley said.

Before President Jimmy Carter nominated him to the U.S. District Court in 1978, Judge Ziegler served five years as an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge. In 1976, he won praise for settling a strike by the city’s public school teachers.

In 1990, he presided over the long criminal trial of Charles “Chucky” Porter and 13 other men accused of racketeering.

“In the mob trial, he let them know who was in charge in a very calm and deliberate manner. He had to deal with some pretty big egos at the defense table,” recalled Mike Bucsko, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter.

“He plowed through things,” said Joe Mandak, who covered for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review a civil trial in 1996 that involved eight defendants and one of the largest corporate frauds in U.S. history involving Phar-Mor,  a chain of discount drugstores.  Its co-founder, Michael I. Monus, was convicted of a $1 billion fraud in 1995. 

“He was uniquely suited to take a very complicated case and get it down to its essence,” Mr. Mandak said, adding that that’s why the federal judge excelled in court and in his second career as a mediator.

After Judge Ziegler left the federal bench, he and his longtime friend, attorney Tom Cooper, opened a mediation practice, settling complex claims, including antitrust, civil rights and personal injury cases. Mr. Cooper said his wife, Leah, often kidded Judge Ziegler that he must be in witness protection because he took circuitous routes while driving them to dinner at Oakmont Country Club.

The longtime member pushed for the admission of the club’s first black and Jewish members, Mr. Cooper recalled.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Donetta W. Ambrose said Judge Ziegler “had so much common sense because he was so humble. He remembered well where he came from.” 

When she was appointed to the federal court bench, Judge Ambrose recalled, “he did everything he could to make me feel comfortable and to help me get acclimated to the job. ... Don was such a good friend to my family, to my husband, to my son. He never stopped caring about them, even after he left the court.”

Survivors are his wife, Claudia, his son, Scott, of Upper St. Clair, and three grandchildren. A Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. John Capistran Church, 1610 McMillan Road, Upper St. Clair. Memorials are suggested to the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1028 Benton Ave., Pittsburgh 15212 or Gallagher Hospice, 1370 Washington Pike, Bridgeville, Pa. 15017.

Marylynne Pitz: mpitz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1648 or on Twitter:@mpitz.

  

First Published: September 25, 2019, 11:00 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Protesters gathered at the corner of Murray and Forbes avenues to speak out against the Trump administration's policies on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Squirrel Hill.
1
news
'We will fight back': Hundreds rally in Squirrel Hill in opposition of Trump, Musk and president's administration
Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller warms up in the outfield befiore their first home game of the Grapefruit League season at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Florida, on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.
2
sports
3 takeaways from Pirates’ second straight win to start spring training
The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning
3
business
Amid funding uncertainty, Pitt pauses doctoral admissions
Kristen Eichamer holds a Project 2025 fan in the group's tent at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa.
4
opinion
Gene Collier: Project 2025 and the ‘stable’ family
A street sign with names of U.S. government agencies housed at the Ronald Reagan Building, including the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID headquarters in Washington, is pictured with one building occupant taped on Feb. 7 in Washington.
5
news
President Trump to eliminate 2,000 USAID jobs, place most of workforce on leave
Judge Donald E. Ziegler watches Robby Chung, 5, of Murrysville display his new flag during a Citizens Recognition Ceremony in U.S. District Court in October 1994. Robby's mother, Bong Chung, formerly of South Korea, was among the 55 immigrants who became American citizens during the monthly ceremony.  (Post-Gazette)
Donald E. Ziegler, a U.S. District Court judge, in a 1995 photo.
Judge Donald E. Ziegler was sworn in as a federal judge in US. District Court on May 22, 1978. He is getting a hand adjusting his robes from his son, Scott, 4, while his wife, Claudia, looks on.  (The Pittsburgh Press )
Judge Donald E. Ziegler in a May 1973 Pittsburgh Press photo.  (Pittsburgh Press)
Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story