Max Rosenn (February 4, 1910 – February 7, 2006) was a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * E ...

Education and career

Born to a Jewish family in

Plains In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, Rosenn received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

in 1929 and a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

in 1932. Upon completing law school, Rosenn entered private practice in

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the seco ...

, Pennsylvania. Rosenn was an assistant district attorney in Wilkes-Barre from 1941 to 1944, and a First Lieutenant in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

from 1944 to 1946 (in the JAG Corps in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

). In 1954, Rosenn,

Mitchell Jenkins Mitchell Jenkins (January 24, 1896 – September 15, 1977) was a U.S. Republican Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania. Biography Mitchell Jenkins was born in Forty Fort, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He attended the Kingston, Pennsylv ...

and Henry Greenwald founded the Wilkes-Barre law firm of Rosenn, Jenkins & Greenwald, which has grown to become a 40-member regional law firm with offices in Wilkes-Barre and

Hazleton Hazleton may refer to: Places * Hazleton, British Columbia, Canada * Hazleton, Gloucestershire, a village in Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton long barrows, Neolithic burial mounds at Hazleton, Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton Abbey, a me ...

, Pennsylvania. He was a Fellow of the

American College of Trial Lawyers The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) is a professional association of trial lawyers from the United States and Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean ...

. He was the Pennsylvania Secretary of Public Welfare 1966 to 1967. In 1972, when Wilkes-Barre and the entire

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

area was devastated by a flood, he chaired the Flood Recovery Task Force.

Federal judicial service

On September 3, 1970, Rosenn was nominated by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

David Henry Stahl David Henry Stahl (May 29, 1920 – February 21, 1970) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Early life Born in Ukraine, Stahl received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from University of Pitt ...

. Rosenn was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

on October 6, 1970, and received his commission the following day. Rosenn assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on January 21, 1981, serving in that capacity until his death.

Honors

In 1980, to commemorate Rosenn's tenth anniversary on the bench, his former law clerks established the annual Max Rosenn Lecture Series in Law and Humanities at Wilkes College (now

Wilkes University Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...

) in Wilkes-Barre. Following his death, they formed the Association of Law Clerks of The Honorable Max Rosenn. The

Max Rosenn United States Courthouse Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ( ...

in Wilkes-Barre is named for him, as is the Max Rosenn Memorial Law Library in the

Luzerne County Courthouse The Luzerne County Courthouse is a historic county courthouse located in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (along the Susquehanna River). The building houses the government of Luzerne County. In 2009, county officials celebrated the o ...

Personal

Rosenn was married to Tillie Hershkowitz, who died in 1992. Rosenn died in Wilkes-Barre on February 7, 2006 at the age of 96. They had two sons.

References

Sources