We at the Fish would like to extend a big welcome to Judge Tom Davies, a fixture in Fargo’s Municipal Court for nearly 40 years — the longest term of any elected official in the city’s history — until health problems forced his retirement in 2012.

Born in Grand Forks, the UND business and law graduate has lived in Fargo since 1956, when his father, Ronald Davies, was appointed a federal judge. (His father, by the way, is known for a landmark ruling in 1957 that racially integrated schools in Little Rock Ark.)

The outspoken, irreverent jurist also shares his observations in Moorhead’s weekly newspaper, The Extra.

As a child, Davies delivered the Grand Forks Herald and sold them on the street corner.