For recently appointed Judge Kate McCarty ’76 Morrow, the daily donning of her judicial robes is a tranformative experience, as though she is literally cloaking herself in responsibility.

“You feel the difference,” says Morrow, 50, who sits on the bench of Pennsylvania’s 41st Judicial District Court of Common Pleas, which covers rural Perry and Juniata counties.

Tapped by opposition-party-Governor Edward Rendell to replace a retiring president judge, Morrow — the first female judge to preside in the two counties — was sworn in July 8,2004,and at work in the courthouse the next day.

Several months into her tenure — she will run for election in 2005 — Morrow “absolutely loves” the job. Because the counties are too small to support specialized courts, she hears a variety of cases, including criminal and civil, and jury and non-jury. “It’s always something different,” she says. “No day is the same.”

Law school, Morrow notes, was not something she considered during her time at SU, where she majored in sociology with an emphasis on economics. Upon graduation, she worked as an admissions counselor at Albright College in Reading, Pa., before attending law school at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Her initial interest was in family law. “I wanted to use my sociology with a human services-type law degree.” However, Morrow was also drawn to maritime law and spent the first seven years of her career with an admiralty law firm in Houston.

In 1989, husband Lewis ’77 — a second-generation Susquehanna alum, himself — decided to shift his own career from geology to farming, and the family re-settled in Perry County. Morrow began a solo private practice, a dramatic change for the former big-city lawyer. “There were 50 lawyers in my old firm,” she says. “That was considered small for Houston.” The type of law she practiced changed, too. “I pretty much had to do everything,” she says. “Estate planning, real estate law, representing municipalities…” The switch also gave Morrow a chance to focus on child advocacy, an interest dating back to her study of sociology at SU.

A judgeship, she notes, was not something she dreamed about as a young attorney. But when the opportunity presented itself, she felt ready to make the move. Son Hunter ’08 was preparing to start his own freshman year at Susquehanna, while children Ben,15,and Annie, 10, were largely self-sufficient. “The timing was right,” Morrow says.

Morrow admits to mixed feelings about running for office next year, but is happy with her new role. “I truly think I can make a difference,” she says. And while she does not dwell upon serving as the district’s first female judge, she adds, “It’s something that I hope my children are proud of me for. It’s nice to have a place in history.”

—Beth Fantaskey Kaszuba

Matt Wargo ’98, Lehn Weaver ’02 and Brandon Zeigler ’02