Dec. 23—Rita Hathaway was a young mother and third grade teacher in 1983 when she suspected one of her students had been the victim of abuse.

When her efforts to intervene on behalf of the child went unanswered, she decided she’d never again be in a position where she couldn’t help. She left the primary school classroom and enrolled in law school.

She eventually became a prosecutor who helped to form a sex crimes and abuse against children unit in the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office. She was elected a judge in 1997.

Hathaway, 73, of Murrysville will retire at year’s end, finishing a 26-year career as Common Pleas judge during which she presided over family, criminal and, since 2020, civil court cases. Her tenure included a five-year stint as president judge — overseeing all court operations and administrative duties — as the first and only woman to hold that title in Westmoreland County.

“When I started, I never thought I would work to 70. I thought maybe after 20 years, but as I got older, I was glad they changed the mandatory retirement age (to 75),” she said. “I never wanted to be a person who said I hated my job, and I started thinking, ‘I’m healthy, and this is want I want to do.’ “

During her tenure, Hathaway presided over high-profile criminal trials, including the prosecution of six Greensburg roommates who tortured and killed a mentally disabled woman. Two of the group’s ringleaders were sentenced to death.

Moments after the jury returned with the death penalty against Melvin Knight for his role in the slaying of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty, Hathaway paused and read the scripted lines a judge is required to cite when pronouncing the death penalty.

She did it through tears.

“I did tear up on the bench when I read those words, ‘May God have mercy on your soul.’ I know I’m not making that decision. The jury made that decision. But that case affected me more than anything else, and it didn’t get easier for me,” Hathaway said.

She read those same words two other times after other juries returned death penalties against one of Knight’s co-defendants and for the man convicted in the first-degree murder of New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw.

Former Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck worked with Hathaway as assistant district attorney and was the lead prosecutor in those death penalty cases.

He described Hathaway as a talented and dedicated prosecutor and later as a fair and thoughtful judge.

“She came into court without a political agenda, no kind of agenda, and, at the end of the day, people knew she had an abiding sense of goodness,” Peck said. “She was everything you would expect to find in a judge. She had the proper temperament, and she was even-handed. She checked all the boxes of what a judge needed to be.”

Westmoreland County Bar Association President Maureen Kroll called Hathaway a role model.

“She was always fair and just,” Kroll said.

Hathaway, who grew up in Massachusetts, said she will travel during retirement. She and her husband will spend time in Plymouth, Mass., and with family that includes two children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She said she’ll continue to volunteer in the community and at her church and maybe continue with her newfound hobby, pickleball.

Hathaway, a breast cancer survivor, was diagnosed 20 years ago. She continues to work with charities and assist those stricken with what she called a life-challenging illness.

“I was indignant because I felt I was healthy,” Hathaway said. “I felt I never wanted to keep it a secret. I needed the prayers, and I wanted the emotional support. Now I want to be there for other people.”

There also will be some time for work.

Hathaway, as a senior judge, will preside two days a month over a grand jury that will be seated early next year by District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli to hear cases involving major crimes and unsolved homicides.

It’s a job Hathaway said will return her to her roots. Her father served as the head of the Boston Police Department homicide squad and led the investigation and arrest of Albert DeSalvo, the man called the Boston Strangler who was accused in the murders of 13 women in the early 1960s.

“I think my father would be proud that I’ll be involved in those unsolved homicide cases,” Hathaway said.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .