When Elkhart County Commissioners have their first meeting in the old courthouse’s Circuit Court chamber, they’ll dedicate the space to a man who held court there for decades.
Now that the county has moved the courts from downtown Goshen’s historic courthouse to the new facility, commissioners and the county council are moving their meetings to the former Circuit Court room. At the first commissioners meeting there Monday they’ll officially name the room the Aldo J. Simpson Chamber.
Simpson was judge for 44 years, from 1932 to 1976, still the county’s longest-serving circuit judge. Commissioners President Brad Rogers says he met him as a 14-year–old Junior Deputy under Sheriff Dick Bowman.
”Well he was a stately man and he was very kind," Rogers says. "The circuit court judge and the sheriff thought it was important enough that they met all these junior deputies on the courthouse steps to give them the oath of office, which wasn’t required by law or anything. It was a teaching moment and to have the circuit court judge actually present was quite phenomenal I thought.”
Rogers says some of Simpson’s grandchildren will attend Monday’s dedication.
