Donetta W. Ambrose still marvels that the daughter of a homemaker and a mill worker from Arnold rose to the federal bench.

"It's amazing to me, and I look back at it, and I still don't know how it happened," said Ambrose of Lower Burrell.

Hard work, good fortune and family and friends spurred Ambrose through a career that began as a law clerk and ended as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.

Ambrose, who turned 65 on Nov. 5, has stepped down to senior status, a semi-retirement that allows her to continue to hear cases but opens her seat to a full-time judge.

"I really felt very strongly about creating the vacancy, giving someone else the opportunity," Ambrose said. "It's a fabulous job. It's the best job in the world."

It's a job she never expected to have while growing up.

Her father, the late Chester Wypiski, worked at the Alcoa mill. Her late mother, Mary, was a homemaker. Neither made it past eighth grade. The Great Depression forced work before school.

"Education was a primary concern of both my parents, and it was very much stressed in my house," Ambrose said.

She planned to teach English and go to a teachers' college. But her high school principal thought she should seek a broader education. He was doing graduate work at Duquesne University, and suggested that to Ambrose and her parents.

Duquesne offered her a full-tuition scholarship. She won the Alcoa scholarship, much to the pride of her dad -- and his fellow mill workers -- because the scholarship usually went to the children of research workers.

As a freshman, Ambrose met a senior student who impressed her. Carol Los Mansmann would become the first woman appointed to the federal bench in Pittsburgh and would later elevate to federal appeals court. She died in 2002.

"I really admired her," Ambrose said. "I thought she was just terrific, and her plan was to go to law school. It placed in my mind an idea it was something I would like to do."

Ambrose was accepted to Duquesne's law school. She was one of three women in her 1970 graduating class.

Ambrose felt fortunate that her law school dean, Louis Manderino, had been appointed to state Commonwealth Court. Manderino hired her as his law clerk. A year later, she followed him to the state Supreme Court.

About that time, Ambrose said, many state offices started realizing they should hire more women.

In 1972, she took a job for two years with the state Attorney General's Office in Pittsburgh, concentrating on civil rights.

She was married to J. Raymond Ambrose Jr. by that time and was expecting their son. She decided to join her husband's law firm in New Kensington.

But Ambrose wanted to become a part-time assistant district attorney. Every time she was at the Greensburg courthouse, she would seek out then-District Attorney Al Nichols about getting a job that no woman had ever held in Westmoreland County. "I think I wore him down, and he gave me a job," she said.

The stint that began in 1977 is still the most fun she had in a job. "It really was an adrenaline rush and, truly, standing in court is thrilling," she said. "It's an exciting kind of experience."

A high-profile case would thrust Ambrose into the spotlight and fuel her desire to sit on the bench.

Ambrose was part of the prosecution team in the kill-for-thrill trial of John Lesko and Michael Travaglia, a death-penalty case in the murder of rookie Apollo police officer Leonard Miller.

"After the trial, people kept saying to me, 'You ought to run for judge,'" Ambrose said. "I thought I was too young. I didn't have experience. No woman has run before. No woman has been elected."

She didn't have the backing of the Democratic Party. Her family and friends ran the campaign.

Ambrose credits her husband for pushing her in that direction. "Without his confidence in me, I would never have ventured in all the areas in my life I have," she said.

She finished first in the 1981 Democratic primary, winning one of the three judge seats in the fall election, her 36th birthday.

Westmoreland County President Judge John Blahovec practiced before Ambrose as an attorney and worked alongside her as a judge.

"It was a pleasure to be in her courtroom. She was very knowledgeable, but she let the attorneys try their cases," he said. "She didn't put up with any baloney. She let you try your case. She was very firm, and fair as far as sentencing goes."

Blahovec said Ambrose always looked out for her fellow jurists. Blahovec, who was fielding domestic cases, must have appeared stressed-out one day. Ambrose offered to help with his workload.

"I didn't ask for any help, she just gave it. She was that kind of person," Blahovec said. "It was everybody's gain in the Western District when she went to Pittsburgh, but it was a big loss here."

Ambrose believes her work on hundreds of Westmoreland asbestos cases led to her federal nomination. After she was asked to tackle the project, Ambrose's research led to a formula to move the cases through the system, devised by a federal judge in New York.

She fashioned her own plan. Within three years the majority of the county's asbestos cases were settled. Trial lawyers on both sides seemed pleased with her work. And as trial lawyers can be political creatures, Ambrose believes they were behind her name being floated for federal court.

She was on the short list a few times during Republican administrations, but the nomination didn't come until 1993 from Bill Clinton.

Friends and family filled the room during her confirmation hearing in Washington.

Attorney David Millstein, who met Ambrose their first year of law school, said when she was nominated to the federal bench it seemed to him a natural fit.

"It was a big leap for her, but she's done extremely well there, as she's done in everything else she's undertaken," Millstein said.

He described his friend as smart, clever, kind and honest.

"She was a terrific trial court judge," Millstein said. "She never treated me any differently than anybody else, something I always regretted, but that's what you'd expect of someone of her integrity."

Ambrose said working on the federal bench offered fascinating vistas in areas of law, such as patents, she had never before handled.

"We're dealing with, many times, constitutional issues," she said. "It's like we're giving life to the Constitution. It's a kind of responsibility that is awe-inspiring.

"I can't point to one (case) and say, 'This was the most interesting. This was the most exciting,'" Ambrose said. "I get wrapped up in every case. I still get excited when the jury comes back, and I get to read the verdict before anybody else knows."

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---