Judge Rambo Honored with Penn State's Alumni Fellow Award

The Honorable Sylvia H. Rambo '62 was honored as an Alumni Fellow Award recipient during the October 10 Alumni Fellow ceremony at The Nittany Lion Inn at University Park, PA.

The Alumni Fellow Award is the most prestigious award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. Since 1973, the Alumni Fellow Award has been given to select alumni who, as leaders in their professional fields, are nominated by an academic college and accept an invitation from the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators.

Judge Rambo is a senior judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Jimmy Carter, Rambo served as judge from 1976 until 1992, when she was named chief judge. She served as chief judge through 1999 then earned senior judge status in 2001. Rambo is the first female to serve as a judge and the chief judge on the Middle District bench.

Prior to becoming a U.S. District judge, Rambo served on the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County (PA.). Earlier in her career, Rambo was the chief public defender in Cumberland County and was in private practice.

In 1996, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist selected Rambo to serve a six-year term with the Committee on Administration of the Magistrate Judge System of the Judicial Conference. Rambo has also served on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Task Force on Legal Services to the Needy, in addition to teaching classes at The Dickinson School of Law as an adjunct professor.

Rambo is a member of The Dickinson School of Law's Board of Counselors and was a member of its former Board of Governors. She has served on the Law School's General Alumni Association and received the school's Alumni of the Year Award in 1981. In 1993, she was honored by the Law School's Women's Law Caucus as the first recipient of the Sylvia H. Rambo Award. Rambo also holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from Penn State.

She is a member of the Penn State Alumni Association and was married to the late George F. Douglas Jr.

The following is a link to her acceptance speech, http://streams.wpsx.psu.edu/Sylvia_Rambo10102.html.