Friends, neighbors hail Haywood nomination
Friends and neighbors are applauding President Barack Obama’s nomination of Elizabeth Forward High School graduate and Pittsburgh Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Ross Haywood to the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
“It is an honor to have a graduate of EFHS being nominated to the Third Circuit,” Elizabeth Forward Superintendent Dr. Bart Rocco said. “We’re very proud of her and her family.”
“I think she has the intellect and temperament to be an outstanding appellate judge,” said Dan Sinclair, a partner in the Eckerd Seamans law firm who graduated with Haywood in 1986. “We had a lot of the same classes, and some activities. I hope the United States Senate considers her and confirms her quickly.”
However, Haywood’s nomination has caused a split between Pennsylvania’s senators.
“She’s a highly qualified candidate for a seat on the Circuit Court of Appeals and deserves to be given fair consideration,” said Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton.
“The administration knows that I have concerns about the nomination of Ms. Haywood to serve on the Third Circuit,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, said last week. “For instance, when I interviewed her for this position, she struggled to answer legal questions about the constitutionality of executive actions, such as President Obama’s executive amnesty.”
Casey called for “a fair hearing and timely vote” for Haywood, saying, “the Senate Judiciary Committee’s historic tradition of independence is at stake.”
Toomey said it was the first time the president nominated a judicial candidate without getting the approval of both Pennsylvania senators.
Haywood, 47, was born in McKeesport. She was raised in the Cemetery Hill area of Elizabeth Borough.
“She came from a great family,” said her high school basketball coach John Hearn. “Her mom, dad and sister, really class acts.”
“It was a real close community,” former neighbor Donna Glenn recalled. “Everyone raised everyone’s children. It was a great place to live.”
Former borough Council President Monica Douglas Glowinski hailed the announcement as “very exciting news.”
“I remember her as being a very kind-hearted individual, very much a champion of the school and the issues that our students faced at that time,” said Mayor V. Ann Malady, who taught for more than 30 years at the old Elizabeth Elementary School. “My recollections are of her as being a very genuine person, very interested in helping the people that she could.”
“She is a beautiful person, period, inside and out,” said Glenn, who lived across the street from Haywood from the time she was “3 or 4 … for a good 8 to 9 years” before moving to Belle Vernon. Her daughter was a playmate of Haywood.
Sinclair recalled Haywood being valedictorian of the Class of 1986.
“I can’t think of very many people I have met in this profession who are more qualified or more suited to be a federal appellate judge than she is,” Sinclair said. “Her work experience and her background make her very well suited for that.”
“She’s very smart, very bright, very driven,” said classmate Doug Balog, now a computer programmer for Target in Pittsburgh. “For as long as I remember she always wanted to be a judge. This is just a result of all her hard work over the years.”
That hard work carried out to the basketball court, where the girl known as Becky Ross was recalled as a good left-handed shooter in middle school, but as a manager on the sidelines for the high school Warrior girls basketball team.
“She just concentrated on her studies and academics,” Hearn said. He and his wife Sandy, a retired high school physical education teacher, both knew her.
“On bus trips we encouraged them to do studies,” John Hearn said. “She brought flashlights and books on bus trips. As manager on the side she would be with her books until she was needed.”
“I like to think of her as my fourth child,” said Judy Bannon, whose son Sean was a classmate who attended gifted classes at Elizabeth Forward withthe future judicial nominee. “She is the most intelligent, delightful young woman I ever met.”
Haywood was educated at Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School where she was associate editor of the Michigan Law Review and earned her juris doctor degree magna cum laude in 1994.
Judy Bannon recalled being thrilled that Becky was going off to Princeton as her son was headed for Notre Dame. They were in a circle that included Becky’s future husband Bob Haywood.
They were all friends,” Judy Bannon said. “To this day they are still friends. Bob was in Sean’s wedding.
Bannon said the Haywoods have “two beautiful daughters … as gifted and talented and beautiful as their mother.”
After graduation Haywood clerked for U.S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch in Pittsburgh for two years and was an attorney in what today is the Jones Day law firm in Pittsburgh before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office in 1997.
After four years there handling civil matters such as employment and medical malpractice cases, Haywood returned to clerk for Bloch from 2001 to 2003 when she returned to the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s office.
There she has been actively involved in workplace management and training, serving as the coordinator for prevention of workplace harassment from 2004 to 2010 and as a member of the executive and training committees since 2011.
In addition, the White House said in announcing the nomination, Haywood is actively involved in the community and regularly speaks to students and legal organizations about the law and her career.
Since 2010 Haywood has been chief of the Appellate Division in the office of Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton.
“The President has made an exceptional nomination,” Hickton said in a prepared statement when the nomination was announced last week. “Rebecca Ross Haywood is a lawyer of unparalleled legal ability and judgment; she is also a wonderful person.”
“Dependable and prepared (is what) we pretty much thought of her,” said John Hearn. “She was so prepared that something was always done before hand.”
“I’m proud of Rebecca for doing so well,” Malady said. “It’s wonderful for her, it’s great for the borough, and God bless her.”
“It is nice to see a small town girl grow up to be a judge,” Glenn said. “She still is Becky Jo. She will never change.”
“I think the world of Rebecca, she’s been a good friend throughout the years,” Balog said. “We’re just very happy for her to get this nomination.”