It is one of those names that is an icon of Delaware County.

Catania.

They were brothers, Nick, Francis and Charles.

Nick was the longtime leader of the Ridley GOP and a former county councilman; Francis sat on the Delco bench for decades and also served as president judge; Charles headed his own engineering firm that worked for towns all over the county.

Now, one of them is gone.

Former Judge Francis Catania died Sunday at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

He oversaw one of the most memorable trials in county history, the 1974 murder trial of former United Mine Workers President W.A. Tony Boyle.
The trial was moved to Delaware County from western Pennsylvania.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for members of the Delco judiciary and legal community. First we lost Judge Robert Wright, the first African-American to serve on the Delco bench.

Now Judge Francis Catania is gone.

Most who knew him remembered Catania first and foremost as a family man.

But that’s now how I will remember him. I will forever remember simply for his last name, one of those names that truly is an icon of Delaware County.