CUMBERLAND – Age is only a number for Joseph J. Roszkowski Esq., who says he’s still very much enjoying his jobs as Cumberland’s probate judge and as an independent attorney.
Roszkowski told The Local Insider he was touched and humbled to recently be awarded by the Rhode Island Bar Association with the 2026 Ralph P. Semonoff Award for Professionalism, named for past R.I. Bar Association President Ralph Semonoff, “who championed the law as a high calling, justice as a defendable right, and public service as the beacon of a life’s work.”
The award is presented to an attorney who has, by his or her ethical and personal conduct, commitment and activities exemplified, for fellow Rhode Island attorneys, the epitome of professionalism in the law, advancing the calling of professional practice through leadership, high standards of integrity, commitment, and dedication.
Selection criteria includes respect for the law; service as an officer of the court and protector of individual rights; contribution of time and resources to public service, public education, charitable and pro bono actives in the community; working with others in the legal system to make the system more accessible and responsive; knowledge of the law and proficiency in practice; and courtesy, personal dignity, and professional integrity.
In his nomination letter, Richard MacAdams described Roszkowski as the consummate professional, has dedicated years to making the profession better, and is regarded well in the community.
Born in 1938, Roszkowski says he remembers the end of the war in 1945, having entered school in 1944. He describes himself as a street-smart kid from Central Falls, participating in air raids at the Hunt Street School, living in a three-tenement house, and having two parents, Joseph and Anna, who worked hard in the local textile industry.
Back then, he said, Central Falls was really a cosmopolitan city, with a Polish section, Irish section, a Syrian and Lebanese section on Washington Street, and the French living “all over the place.”
“It was a mixture of all kinds of people,” he said. “Everybody got along.”
He ended up attending Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket before attending law school. He received his juris doctorate from Marquette University in 1964, passed the bar on his first try that year, and was admitted to the bar the year after, and later worked as a partner with Zimmerman, Roszkowski & Brenner in Woonsocket from 1965 to 2010.
His wife, Geraldine, whom he married on July 2, 1966, was a 4th-grade teacher in North Smithfield for 35 years. These days, the couple, who have no children, enjoy a more relaxed schedule, with a home on Little Street (previously Cook Road) near Ice Cream Machine in Cumberland and another in Point Judith. He said he’s loved being married to the same woman for 60 years.
“I always tell people, when a marriage is good, it’s good,” he said. “There’s no reason to fool around.”
As an attorney, Roszkowski specializes in probate law, estate administration, trusts, and wills, all matters he also takes up as probate judge for Cumberland. There are so many sensitive situations that require being able to make wise decisions, he said, and he’s seen it all when it comes to settling family disputes, some of them involving big-name Rhode Island families.
Asked about the complexities of trying to figure what’s best for a given situation, Roszkowski said it’s often not as complicated as the sides make it out to be. He follows the law and mixes in a dash of common sense and kindness.
Known for his kind demeanor, Roszkowski said that approach is no accident. Some judges in probate courts of old were very mean, he said, and were “absolute followers of the law with no leeway at all.”
“They were very strict,” he said, recalling how he would sometimes see widows and children walking out of court sobbing. “I try not to be that way. I don’t want anybody to cry in my courtroom. I don’t want to insult or intimidate anyone in my courtroom. There’s no screaming and yelling in my court.”
Many people in probate court are dealing with grief and the shock of losing a loved one, said Roszkowski. Families are often scattered, and many situations he has to consider relate to one child who’s been living with and taking care of mom and dad for years while other children are off in California or elsewhere.
In this position, he said, one has to deal with the grief aspect and loved ones in shock. Add in the family dynamics, and it can get very volatile. Everyone is under stress, he said, and a death in the family or guardianship situation involves the “human personal factor.”
“I don’t need to lay another layer of stress on them,” he said, explaining the the always stays pretty calm and doesn’t lose his temper.
“But don’t talk to my wife,” he said, laughing.
Most attorneys involved in these types of matters are older, he said, and they can jovially discuss the latest Red Sox game or the big fish someone caught.
His best advice to people is that they do good estate planning earlier, he said. At least have a will, but trusts are a bit better, he said, and they help avoid probate matters. It’s a simplified document that can be amended later, he emphasized.
On ending his original practice, likely the biggest in Woonsocket at the time, Roszkowski said he began seeing the writing on the wall as businesses were closing down during the 1990s. They watched traffic outside of their 1625 Diamond Hill Road practice diminish from about 40,000 cars per day in the late 1990s to about 15,000 cars. He knew they couldn’t keep doling out the wages they were, he said, so the firm was dismantled and he and a fellow senior partner with a couple of associates started a practice in Cumberland.
Roszkowski said he’s been involved in just about everything over his long career.
“I’ve put in my time,” he said.
That includes Rotary Club of Cumberland-Lincoln member and former president; Paul Harris Fellow; president of the RI Bar Association in 1985-1986; State of RI Board of Bar Examiners from 1995 to 2002 (chairperson 2001); Judicial Tenure and Discipline Committee, 2007-2014; RI Bar House of Delegates from 1978 to the present, RI Bar Executive Committee, 1981-1987; president of the RI Bar Foundation, 1990-1996; RI Bar IOLTA Grants Committee, 1989 to present; multi-time ABA State Delegate for RI; ABA Board of Governors; ABA House of Delegates; ABA chairperson of Steering Committee of the Nominating Committee; ABA IOLTA Commission; ABA Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral Services and Meetings and Travel Committee; American Bar Foundation Life Fellow, 1994; Martindale Rating Av since 1978
Tenures as probate judge in a town often depend on who is mayor, said Roszkowski, who has served multiple separate terms as probate judge, including from 2019 to the present. He is a fellow with the National College of Probate Judges.
Roszkowksi will turn 88 years old on Aug. 11, and he works an abbreviated schedule mostly Tuesday to Thursday on such matters as estates, wills and trusts, and probate matters in other courts. He said he and his wife spend a lot of their time these days in Point Judith. He loves skiing, sailing, scuba diving, gardening, and tennis.
Some of his favorite memories, he said, were from his days of big game fishing and his time as chief rules judge for the Rhode Island Tuna Tournament, which ended in 1997.
