The Honorable Joseph Daniel Roulhac was born in Selma, Alabama, August 18, 1916. His father, a Presbyterian minister, moved the family to Tuscaloosa when young Joseph was 10 —and four years later the family moved to Titusville, Georgia. He attended church school until the ninth grade and after a short time in public school he was sent back to Tuscaloosa to finish high school at Stillman Institute which later became Stillman College.

Judge Roulhac received his bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science from Lincoln University. He then went on to receive his master’s in sociology at Penn. He entered the U.S. Army in 1942, was discharged in 1946, resumed his quest for a law degree at University of Pennsylvania Law School and received it in 1948.

He briefly worked in Cleveland in 1948, then, moved to Akron where he began a private practice. In 1957 he became the first black assistant prosecutor of Summit County. He returned to private practice in 1963 and was appointed to the Akron Municipal Court in 1967. Judge Roulhac was elected to successive terms and retired from the bench in 1987.

Judge Roulhac was a director at East Akron Community House, member of the Frontiers Club, NAACP, Urban League, American Legion, VFW and the Akron Bar Association. In 2003, Stillman College named a resident hall in his honor.

Judge Joseph D. Roulhac passed away on March 5, 2008; he was 92.