Judge Cavanaugh was born in Philadelphia on August 26, 1931. He graduated from St. Joseph’s College in 1953 and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1956. Judge Cavanaugh was a practicing attorney in Philadelphia for twelve years before being elected to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas in 1968.
Judge Cavanaugh was appointed to the Superior Court in August 1979 and elected to a full ten-year term in November of the same year. He was retained in 1989 and 1999. Cavanaugh passed away at the age of 72 on July 13, 2004.
He was deeply involved in numerous civic activities in the greater Philadelphia area throughout his adult life. He served as chairman of the advisory committee of the Prisoner’s Family Welfare Association and as chairman and founding member of the advisory board of the Self-Help program. He also served on the Governor’s Justice Commission Regional Board, the Pennsylvania Board of Judicial Inquiry and Review, and the executive committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges.
In addition, Judge Cavanaugh was director of the Counseling or Referral Agency, the Philadelphia Bicentennial Committee, the Mummer’s Museum in Philadelphia, and was a member of the Board of Managers of the Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute. In West Chester, Judge Cavanaugh was a member of the Italian American Social Club and the Monsignor Henry C. Schuyler Knights of Columbus Council 1333.