Service to the Valley defined Mihalich

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

Judge Gilfert Mihalich is being remembered as a man of fairness and integrity by his friends and family. 

The 93-year-old Monessen native who spent decades as a Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge passed away Tuesday.

“He was a great father and a great judge and a dedicated servant to the community and the nation,” said his son, Gil Mihalich.

Judge Mihalich served on the bench from 1972 through his retirement in 1996, after which he served as a senior judge for a number of years. 

Leonard Mihalich recalled his father sentencing one man to go to church three days a week, with the priest signing a slip that he attended. He also presided over the kill-for-thrill murder trials of John Lesko and Michael Travaglia in 1981.

“He sentenced Lesko and Travaglia to death, the two extremes,” Leonard said.

Judge Mihalich was politically active long before his first campaign for office, with his son Leonard recalling President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Monessen in 1962.

“My dad called out ‘Hey Jack, hey Jack!’ and the president said ‘Gil, what are you doing here?’ ‘I live here,’” Leonard Mihalich recalled.