Ronald Castille is the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He was the District Attorney of the City of Philadelphia from 1986 until 1991. He is also an amputee (requiring the use of crutches), having lost his right leg to enemy gunfire while serving as a Marine platoon commander during the Vietnam War.
Chief Justice Castille earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Auburn University in 1966. Following graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam where he served as a platoon commander. In March 1967, while conducting a search-and-destroy mission with his company in Quang Ngai Province, they came under attack from a Viet Cong battalion and Chief Justice Castille was seriously wounded.
Following his medical retirement from the Marines, Chief Justice Castille earned a law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 1986, he was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia and served until 1991. Prior to his election to the Supreme Court, he was in private practice as a civil litigator for Reed Smith Shaw & McClay in Philadelphia. He was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1993, and was sworn in as Chief Justice in January 2008.
EDUCATION: Auburn University, B.S.; University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.