Dayich retiring as Greene County president judge in January
Served as public defender, magistrate before being elevated to judge in 2016
Mike Jones
Greene County President Judge Lou Dayich is not running for retention for his seat on the bench and will ease into retirement when his 10-year term ends at the beginning of January.
Dayich, who won election as judge in 2015 and was elevated to leadership role of president judge five years later, said it was always his plan to run for one term and step aside.
“I certainly have enjoyed the work,” Dayich said of being a judge. “It’s an important job. But I have a lot of hobbies.”
Dayich recently married his wife, Tammy, and he said he’d like to focus on “a little bit of everything” in retirement, such as spending time as a ham radio operator and amateur carpenter, while also doing a little traveling.
Before becoming a Court of Common Pleas judge, he served as a district magistrate in Waynesburg for 16 years after winning a seat on the lower court in 1999, so he will have served more than a quarter-century on the bench when he retires. Dayich added he will not be taking “senior status” that would allow him to work intermittently when there is a need for a judge in Greene County or elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
“I really love the law. I love the fact that there are laws and then there generally are common sense approaches to how you apply that law,” Dayich said. “To me, the fact that we live in an organized society and settle our disputes in an orderly way and there’s a mechanism founded in the Constitution. All of that is very interesting to me.”
But he also acknowledged it’s been a double-edged sword between his private life and public profession, presiding mostly over criminal proceedings during his tenure.
“You live in the community and you have a fair amount of sacrifice. I don’t want to socialize a lot because you want to keep an open mind (in court),” he said. “When you have that robe on in court, you really feel like you’re doing your job as a judge.”
After graduating from Washington & Jefferson College, Dayich attended law school at the University of Pittsburgh. After graduating from Pitt, he returned to Waynesburg to become a public defender in 1988 and later worked as a private attorney.
With his impending retirement, Judge Jeff Grimes will be elevated to president judge in January. Dayich defeated Grimes by just 86 votes in that 2015 election for judge, but there was never any animosity over the election, and Grimes eventually won a seat on the bench in 2021.
The open seat now will likely mean a competitive primary and general election this year. Candidates can begin circulating their nominating petitions on Feb. 18 in an attempt to get on the ballot for the May 20 primary election.