Thomas G. Saylor was born on December 14, 1946 in Meyersdale, Somerset County, PA. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and Juris Doctorate from Columbia University School of Law in 1972.
Saylor returned home from New York City and worked as a prosecutor from 1972 to 1982. Before being elected to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in 1993, Saylor served as the Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Consumer Protection and as the First Deputy Attorney General under Leroy Zimmerman.
Justice Saylor successfully ran for a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1997. He would spend the next 18 years on that court, as an Associate Justice, until he was elevated to Chief Justice in 2015. On December 21, 2021, Chief Justice Saylor retired from the Court.
Chief Justice Emeritus Saylor currently serves as the Chief Justice in Residence at Duquesne University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law Judicial Education Center. His hometown of Meyersdale named their Community Center after him, in 2015.