MONONGAHELA — Paul Simmons, the first black federal judge in Western Pennsylvania, has died Oct. 9 at his home of natural causes. He was 93.

He was a railroad worker when his right leg was amputated in 1942. He studied the law, sued and settled with the railroad himself.

Simmons graduated from Harvard Law School. He was appointed a Common Pleas judge in Washington County in 1973. President Jimmy Carter nominated him to the U.S. District Court bench in Pittsburgh in 1978. He retired in 1990