George McMonagle served the judiciary of Ohio for over 30 years as an elected and visiting Common Pleas Court Judge. He graduated from Cathedral Latin High School and worked in his uncle’s construction company before entering law school. In 1964, Governor Rhodes appointed him to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. In 1966 he won his first election, and the citizens of Cuyahoga County returned the revered jurist to the bench repeatedly until his retirement in 1985. McMonagle was the head of a family of judges that included his brother, the late Richard J. McMonagle (1938), his sons Richard J. McMonagle and James J. McMonagle (1970), and his nephew Timothy McMonagle (1974), all former Common Pleas Court Judges. In the Plain Dealer, Brent Larkin (1987) hailed George McMonagle as “one of the greatest judges ever to serve in the county court system—perhaps the greatest.”