U.S. District Judge David Dowd dies at 87

Staff/wire report

COLUMBUS

Former U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd Jr., who briefly served on the Ohio Supreme Court in the early 1980s, died Thursday at age 87.

American flags will be flown at half-staff at all the courthouses in the Northern District of Ohio today through Tuesday of next week.

Judge Dowd was on a three-judge panel that supervised the Mahoning County jail under a consent decree that settled an inmate lawsuit concerning jail crowding in 2007.

He also was the judge who sentenced Donna Moonda, the Mercer County, Pa., woman convicted in the murder for hire of her husband, Dr. Gulam Moonda, in May 2005, to life in prison in 2007.

Judge Dowd served for five months on the high court after his appointment by Gov. James Rhodes to replace Justice Thomas M. Herbert, who had resigned.

According to his official court biography provided by the Ohio Supreme Court, Judge Dowd lost the 1980 general election to Clifford F. Brown to serve a full six-year term on the Court. It was a close vote: He lost by 35,594 votes out of more than 3 million cast.

Judge Dowd appeared at a fundraiser at the Youngstown Club in August 1980 during his run against Judge Brown.

After completing his term on the state’s high court on Jan. 1, 1981, Judge Dowd returned to private practice until his appointment by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1982. He served on the federal bench for 32 years.

Born Jan. 31, 1929, Judge Dowd had a bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He served as a 5th District Court of Appeals judge, Stark County prosecutor, and Massillon City Councilman. He and his wife, Joyce, reared four children: Cindy, David, Doug, and Mark.

Memorial arrangements are pending.