Hon. Kim R. Gibson

The Hon. Kim R. Gibson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in June 1970 and following completion of airborne and ranger training, he served as an armor officer until October 1975 and as a JAG officer until August 1978. Following his release from active duty he continued to serve in the United States Army Reserve and retired as a Colonel, JAG, USAR in 1996. In 1991, he and his JAG Detachment were activated during the first Gulf War.

Judge Gibson was in private practice as a sole practitioner in Somerset, Pennsylvania from 1978 through 1997. During that time he served as a public defender, attorney for Children and Youth Services, solicitor for a school district and various municipalities and as solicitor for Somerset County. He was elected to the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas in 1997. During his time on the common pleas bench, he was instrumental in establishing Victim Impact Panels and a Juvenile Drug Court, only the second such court in Pennsylvania.

Judge Gibson was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania by President George W. Bush on September 23, 2003. A resident of Somerset County, from 2002-2008 Judge Gibson was the cochair of the Flight 93 Task Force, a group of representatives from all over the nation tasked by Congress with the goal of establishing a permanent national memorial to the passengers and crew of Flight 93 and a national park at the site where Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001.