Sylvia H. Rambo

Sylvia Hilda Rambo (April 17, 1936 – December 23, 2024) was an American jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania from her appointment in 1979 until her retirement in August 2024.

In 1979, Rambo became the first woman appointed as a judge in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, whose sprawling jurisdiction includes thirty-three Pennsylvania counties. She was also served as the first female Chief Judge of the Middle District of Pennsylvania from 1992 until 1999.

Judge Rambo was a longtime advocate for the construction of a new, modern federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to replace the aging Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse. In April 2021, Pennsylvania United States Senators Bob Casey Jr. and Pat Toomey jointly introduced legislation naming the new federal courthouse, then under construction, for Rambo. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law and, in 2022, Judge Rambo became one of the only women in history to have an American federal courthouse named in her honor. The new Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse, the first federal courthouse in Pennsylvania named for a woman, officially opened to the public on April 17, 2023.