Federal Judge Anthony Alaimo, Subject of Mercer Press Biography, Dies at 89

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Senior U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Alaimo — subject of the 2008 Mercer University Press biography, The Sicilian Judge: Anthony Alaimo, An American Hero, died Dec. 30 in Brunswick. He was 89.

Appointed to the federal bench by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971, Judge Alaimo presided over cases that changed the state’s system for electing judges, rescued farmers from foreclosure, sent corrupt government officials and drug kingpins to prison  and courageously reformed Georgia’s troubled prison system.

The Mercer Press biography traces his storied life from Sicilian immigrant to America to World War II pilot and hero, who made a harrowing escape from a Nazi prison camp, to his legendary legal career and remarkable 39 years of service as a federal district judge in his beloved Southern District of Georgia.

“Judge Alaimo was indeed an American hero and a great inspiration.  I loved everything about him and especially that he and Mercer’s own Judge Bell were such good friends and how much they admired each other.  They were two of an extraordinary kind – brilliant, strong, brave, charismatic, warm, good-humored and wonderful examples and mentors.  In the space of one year, these two heroes are gone from this earth, but never from our hearts,” said Richard A. (Doc) Schneider, a senior partner at King & Spalding and Chairman of the Board of the Mercer University Press.

A full obituary can be found at http://www.ajc.com/news/federal-judge-anthony-alaimo-262299.html.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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