Retired federal judge William Standish dead at 84

SEWICKLEY, Pa. (AP) - William L. Standish, a prominent Pittsburgh-area attorney who served as a state and federal judge and was a member of the original ownership group of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has died. He was 84.

Standish's sons, Baird and N. Graham Standish, said their father died Thursday after a long illness. The death was first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Standish was a Yale graduate and earned his law degree at the University of Virginia. He worked and became a partner at Reed Smith, a major Pittsburgh-based law firm, before he was elected an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge in 1980. Seven years later, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the federal bench, and he served as a U.S. District Judge in Pittsburgh until 2012, working as a senior judge the last decade.

Standish enjoyed boxing as a young man but became a hockey fan while attending boarding school in New Hampshire. That's what prompted him to invest in the Penguins, who joined the National Hockey League as an expansion team in 1967.

"It was pretty much, take the bus into town on Wednesday, go to my guitar lesson, meet dad for dinner and go to a hockey game," Baird Standish told the newspaper. "I think I must have gone to 200 hockey games growing up."

Only illness stopped Standish from working as a judge. "I've never actually met a guy who loved what he did as much as my dad," Baird Standish said.

Allegheny County President Judge Jeffrey Manning practiced in front of Standish as a young attorney and remembered him as tough, but fair. "He saw no contradiction in having a hard head and a soft heart," Manning said.

Funeral arrangements were pending Friday, and being handled by the Richard D. Cole Funeral Home Inc. in Sewickley, the suburb where Standish lived.

Standish was survived by his wife, Marguerite Oliver; their four children, Baird, N. Graham, James and Constance; and nine grandchildren.