GARY — Lake Criminal Court Senior Judge Diane Ross Boswell was a respected jurist as well as a beloved mother, friend and colleague.
An overflow crowd of family, friends and officials packed into Christ United Methodist Church on Saturday to honor her life before she was laid to her final rest at Ridgelawn Cemetery.
Boswell died Oct. 19 at the age of 72.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard A. Carter spoke during Saturday morning’s service. Beforehand he remarked that Boswell was universally respected by prosecutors, defense attorneys and those who stood accused in her courtroom.
Join Cpl. Jerry Patrick, as he patrols the hallways of Lake Central and Kahler Middle School.
“Everyone knew the right decision would be made with her on the bench,” Carter said.
Carter said the loss of Boswell in the Region’s legal community is great and he would miss her as a friend.
“She will be missed immensely,” Carter said.
Carter and others spoke of Boswell’s drive and determination.
She spent her early professional career as a social worker before attending Loyola University Law School in Chicago part-time.
After five years of working full-time as a social worker and part-time law student on top of being a mother and wife, she earned her law degree in 1991.
She’d often bring her son Alger Boswell III with her to night school in Chicago.
Boswell served as a Lake County deputy prosecutor from 1994 to April 2005, when then-Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed her to the bench.
“She was the most logical person I’ve ever met,” friend Paulette Davis said during Saturday’s service.
Boswell’s cousin Arthel B. Martin, who remarked their relationship was more that of a brother and sister, said that even as a kid Boswell “wanted to save everyone.”
Martin said Boswell was also a beloved friend to everyone who knew her.
“If she was your friend,” Martin said. “She was your true friend. … She was a friend to everyone.”
Martin remarked that one day he sat in on her courtroom and she had sentenced someone to a lengthy prison sentence.
“She gave a man 100 years in jail,” Martin said. “Then she has the nerve to tell him to make the most of that time.”
The story was met with uproarious laughter but as Carter later mentioned, Boswell put much care and effort into being behind the bench.
“She’d weigh the sentence with how is the Department of Corrections going to affect this young person,” Carter said.
Outside of her legal career, Martin said Boswell loved food, music and collecting art. She particularly had a love for African art and was drawn to Africa.
Martin said she also had a deep love for travel and not only did she conquer a fear of flying to traverse the globe throughout the years, she also become a licensed pilot.
In January, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and had been looking at buying a home in Senegal.
Trent McCain, deputy mayor of Gary, has known Boswell and her family since he was a kid through Boswell’s late husband Alger V. “Al” Boswell, a long-time speech, journalism and drama teacher at West Side.
McCain said that Judge Boswell believed in diversity and inclusion and was a pioneer.
Judge Boswell was born Jan. 25, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, but was raised in Gary by parents Wilhelmina and Theodore Ross.
She graduated from Tolleston High School and later received her bachelor’s in psychology from Tennessee State University where she met her husband.
