Frank Battisti, U.S. Judge In Cleveland, Dies at 72
U.S. District Court Judge Frank J. Battisti, who presided over Cleveland’s school-desegregation case for nearly two decades, has died of a disease similar to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, authorities said. He was 72.
Judge Battisti served as the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio from 1969 until 1990. In 1976, he ordered student busing in the Cleveland school district.
In semiretirement, he had continued to preside over school desegregation in Cleveland. He had been overseeing implementation of a settlement reached last spring. (See Education Week, March 16, 1994.)
Mr. Battisti became the youngest federal judge in the nation when appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He died in Cleveland on Oct. 19, following an illness authorities believe he contracted on a fishing trip in Montana.
