Frank E. Schwelb, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetFrank E. Schwelb
Date of Birth: 24-Jun-1932
Place of Birth: Prague, Czech Republic
Date of Death: 13-Aug-2014
Profession: judge
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About Frank E. Schwelb
- Frank Ernest Schwelb (June 24, 1932 – August 13, 2014) was a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Schwelb was born in Prague, where his father Egon Schwelb was a Jewish human rights lawyer.
- After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Egon Schwelb was arrested by the Gestapo and held for two months.
- Upon his release, he fled with his family to London, where he was part of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile.
- The family moved to the United States in 1947 when Egon became deputy director of the human rights division of the new United Nations.
- Frank was fifteen years old.
- He graduated from Yale College in 1953 and Harvard Law School in 1958, serving in the United States Army from 1955 to 1957.
- After law school Schwelb worked at the New York law firm Mudge, Stern, Baldwin & Todd and then, beginning in 1962, at the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
- In 1979, Schwelb was nominated and confirmed to be a trial judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
- He was elevated to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1988.
- He took senior status in 2006 and died in 2014. Schwelb was noted for his distinctive writing style as a judge.
- The Washington Post once referred to him as "judge laureate of the D.C.
- Superior Court." He enjoyed flowery turns of phrase and was known to quote Shakespeare or Gilbert and Sullivan in his opinions.
- In 1980, he was the victim of a robbery and was shot when he refused to turn over his wallet.
- In his first opinion back on the bench after a two-month recovery, he wrote about the incident and his assailants, who "unsuccessfully attempted a redistribution of the wealth by demanding the Court’s wallet" and "left a lead bullet in the Court’s abdomen."
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