GREENSBURG - As Judge Charles Loughran sat in his second floor office in the Westmoreland County Courthouse last month, he couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days.
"When I was first a judge, you'd tell people, lawyers, to dress in a suit and tie. If we want to treat people as professionals, you should act as professionals. It's a lot less formal today. I do long for those days," he said.
"Today a lawyer might break his word. If there is an agreement between lawyers, that's where it all must end. In the last 40 years there are probably five times more lawyers, so now there are a lot of cases that come before me that wouldn't have in 1960."
Today is Loughran's last day on the job as a Westmoreland County judge. At 67, the Greensburg resident is retiring to spend more time with his wife, to travel and to pursue other hobbies that he had little time for during his 25 years on the bench.
Loughran is known for speaking his mind, a style he developed while working with his father in their Greensburg law office, and one that continued after Loughran won a seat on the county's Common Pleas Court in 1978.
"I am firm, a no-nonsense guy, because that is what I think a judge should be. Sometimes I say things that are blunt and I'm frank with people. I don't beat around the bush. That's just me," he said.
That attitude sometimes rubbed attorneys and litigants the wrong way, but it served to ensure that Loughran was in charge in his courtroom.
In addition to his outspoken style, Loughran is known for refusing to rely on modern technology. He would not use fax machines or e-mail to schedule court cases or to exchange information with lawyers.
"I don't have a fax. I won't have a fax. If you want to deal with me, you come before me and present a motion," he said.
That old-school attitude dates to Loughran's return from military service in 1960. Over the next 18 years, his Greensburg-based practice focused mostly on civil law.
The political bug bit in the late 1960s after his father - a district attorney for one term - made an unsuccessful bid to become a county judge.
In 1977, Loughran decided to make his own run for a seat on the bench.
"When you're a trial lawyer, you work Saturday, Sunday and Thursday nights. You try cases and go to meetings on weeknights. I was never home. I was overworked. My health was an issue. I wound up in the hospital from exhaustion," he said.
His bid for a career change proved successful. When he took office in 1978, Loughran was one of six judges in the county court. Today there are 11.
Over the years, Loughran has handled all sorts of cases, from family matters to criminal court. For most of the last decade he worked almost exclusively in the civil court division.
In 1997, Loughran was elected president judge, replacing the late Judge Bernard Scherer.
That same year, Westmoreland County residents voted overwhelmingly to retain him for another 10-year term.
John Scales, a longtime Greensburg attorney, has known Loughran since the two started practicing law more than four decades ago. In fact, their fathers were law partners until shortly after World War II, when the elder Loughran left to pursue a career as a prosecutor.
In later years, Scales went to work for Loughran's father in the county prosecutor's office before replacing him as district attorney in 1968.
Loughran's "is a courtroom lawyers enjoy being in," Scales said. "He knows the issues and he's always well prepared. We're really going to miss him. I have the greatest respect for him."
State law mandates that judges retire the year they turn 70. Loughran decided to call it quits three years early so he could enjoy his retirement.
He said he'll exchange his black judicial robes for a white apron when he enrolls in cooking classes. And he intends to study art, another hobby he put on the back burner years ago as his law career flourished.
Traveling is also on his agenda.
"I want to use these healthy years to enjoy the companionship of my wife," Loughran said.
But he'll still be seen in the halls of the courthouse. Loughran intends to serve as a senior judge, coming in about one week every month to help reduce the caseload while Gov. Mark Schweiker selects his replacement.
And on those days he'll keep to the routine that he has followed for the last two-and-a-half decades.
"I walk to work every day, and walk home over the hill," he said. "I'll get the fireplace going and have a drink."
