Philip T. Abraham, a longtime Multnomah County judge who presided over a portion of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan assault case in the mid-1990s, died January 2nd of heart failure. He was 84 years old.

Abraham died in his sleep while in a Northeast Portland senior home for rehabilitation after a recent surgery. However, family members said he managed to spend Christmas with his wife of 56 years, Patti, seven children and 14 grandchildren.

Abraham spent his law career in Multnomah County, passing the Oregon State Bar in 1957, his family said. He was appointed as a Portland municipal judge in 1964. He retired as a chief criminal judge in 1996 but served on senior status until his death.

Family members described Abraham as a humble and compassionate man, who believed in his faith and family. He taught himself how to play the piano, spouted one-liners such as “Don’t flip your lid, kid,” and spontaneously broke into song.

“He had a contagious smile and always had a twinkle in his eye,” said Leslie Keller, Abraham’s oldest child. “We would call him ‘Front Page Phil’ because we’d always see his name in the paper.”

Abraham was born October 22, 1928 in Portland, the fifth of seven children in his family. He graduated from the University of Oregon, then served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He received his law degree from what is now Lewis & Clark Law School after his discharge from the military.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Abraham to the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee in the early 1980s for his involvement in revising the Oregon motor vehicle code.

One of his higher-profile cases as a judge involved three men convicted of carrying out a plot to injure figure skater Nancy Kerrigan at the U.S. championships in 1994. Portland native Tonya Harding, a rival of Kerrigan, later admitted to helping cover up the attack.

Todd Abraham, the judge’s sixth child, said his father’s reputation as an evenhanded arbiter stuck with him through the years.

“I’ve had people sentenced by him approach me and make a point to tell me how fair a man he was,” Todd Abraham said. “My father always tried to be good to people.”

Recitation of the Rosary will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, January 8, followed by a funeral Mass at 11 a.m., at All Saints Catholic Church, 3847 N.E. Glisan St. in Portland. 