Emil Narick (1916-2007)

When I was a kid I didn’t have a lot of heroes, mostly baseball players, Mickey Mantle, the Brave’s Eddie Matthews, the Pirates’ Frank Thomas and Bill Mazeroski. I remember being sad the day Frank Thomas was traded to the Reds, a transaction which wound up shaping the team that won the World Series in 1960.
Other heroes included Van Cliburn the pianist and Bobby Fischer, the chess master (boy what a head case he turned out to be).
One hero I've always remembered was an attorney who represented the United Steelworkers, Emil Narick. It wasn’t his day job that impressed me. On weekends he refereed college and NFL games!
The last thing I remember about Narick, about the time I was getting out of college was that he ran unsuccessfully for the Presidency of the United Steel Workers. I never knew about his short stint with the EEOC or his subsequent 15 year career as a Judge of both Common Pleas and Commonwealth Courts
Narick died Saturday. When I told my mom about his death she remembered him for his time on the Bench.
I will always think of him as a man who had two simultaneous careers and excelled at both.