Of all of our 35 Lucas County Prosecutors, perhaps best remembered is our immediate past Chief. Anthony G. Pizza, our 34th Prosecutor, spent a record-breaking 45 years ---almost his entire legal career---in the Prosecutor’s Office. Hired by Prosecutor Harry Friberg as an Assistant Prosecutor in 1951, he served continuously until 1976, when the Lucas County Democratic Party tapped him to succeed Friberg, who retired.

Elected to his first term in 1976, Anthony Pizza ran for and was re-elected every four years until the 1996 election when, at age 75, he decided to retire at the expiration of his fifth successive term.

Born in 1921 in Toledo, Pizza graduated from St. Charles grade school and Libbey High School (1940, where he was class salutatorian and played varsity football). He attended Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio and is a 1950 graduate of the University of Toledo College of Law.

A veteran of World War II, he served as Navigator Second Lieutenant with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific. He also served in Japan one week after the atomic bomb was dropped.

Over his long career as Prosecutor, Pizza often used innovative methods in combating crime in Lucas County. He closed massage parlors to halt prostitution, enjoined the use of property for illegal drug sales, using a little used nuisance law to close crack houses, and stopped the illegal sale of liquor by closing after hours establishments.

In 1991 he filed suit in U.S. District Court against the State of Michigan to enjoin the dumping of hazardous waste into the waterways of northwest Ohio. He was successful in this venture forcing Michigan to abandon the hazardous waste dump site in Riga Township, Michigan which would serve a seven state area.

Pizza received many awards for his law enforcement activities. He received the 1989 Golden Heart Award from the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support ("ACES"). Also in 1989, he received the Citizens Monitoring Board first "Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer" award. In 1991, Pizza was named the "Outstanding Prosecuting Attorney of the Year" by the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. Finally, in 1994, he was inducted into the Libbey High School Hall of Fame as a "Distinguished Alumnus".

Pizza served a total of 45 years in the Prosecutor's Office, longer than any of his predecessors. During his tenure, the number of cases prosecuted increased enormously. In 1951, when he joined the office as an assistant prosecutor, ten prosecutors tried about 600 felony cases. By 1996, when Pizza retired, the office with fifty prosecutors, tried more than 3,000 cases, may of them with multiple felony counts.

He will also be remembered for his establishment of a Victim-Witness Assistance Program, which continued to expand each year in the number of victims and witnesses to crime who assist in the prosecution of criminal defendants.

Finally, a large and impressive number of judges at all levels of the judiciary are his alumni, as are prominent attorneys in our community. The current Lucas County Prosecutor, Julia R. Bates, his successor, is also one of them.

At the expiration of his fifth term as Lucas County Prosecutor, on December 31, 1996, Anthony G. Pizza began a much deserved retirement in Holland, Ohio and in Ft. Myers, Florida with his beloved wife, Madlynn, and their family. He continued to practice law in Toledo for more than ten years after his retirement as Prosecutor and remained an active and vital participant in community life in both locations until his death on June 19, 2007. His personal integrity, incredible memory and famous “Pizza smile”of love and concern for every human being whose life he touched----from the humblest vagrant to the most illustrious citizens---assure his immortality in Lucas County and far beyond.