Judge Edward Becker Passes

Federal Judge Edward R. Becker climbed to within a step of the U.S. Supreme Court but never lost his touch for the regular guy. Becker, senior judge of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, died after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 73 and lived with his wife, Flora, on Herbert Street in Frankford in the house where he lived as a child. He rode the Frankford El to work every day. "He probably just rode the El to heaven," said Third Circuit Judge Marjorie O. (Midge) Rendell. Becker was born in Philadelphia in 1933, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania in 1954 and three years later from Yale Law School. Senator Specter called him "one of the greatest Philadelphians in our city's history."