District Judge Ed Lewis retired in early February after 30 years on the bench.

Starting as a Jim Thorpe policeman, he never expected to be asked to become a district justice.He had taken the course that allows one to become a district justice, but had taken the class for "educational purposes."When District Justice Harry Heydt announced he was stepping down in the middle of his term in 1985, then Carbon County Commissioner Tom Gerhard Sr. asked Lewis to take his seat on the bench.He took over the bench in 1986, nearly a year after Heydt retired.Lewis has seen a lot of cases come through the courtroom, but certain cases will always stick."The ones that hit me hardest are the cases involving kids," he said.Lewis passed on the gavel to his stepson, Eric Schrantz, in August, after Schrantz was formally appointed by the state to fill the unexpired term, which runs to January 2018.