News Update from Patrick Yarbrough ’83
WINNEBAGO COUNTY (WREX) — Associate Circuit Judge K. Patrick Yarbrough will retire from his position on Aug. 31, 2019.
Judge Yarbrough was appointed as an associate judge on Jan. 26, 2007. He was Winnebago County’s first African American judge. During his time on the bench, he presided over criminal, juvenile and mental health cases in Winnebago County. Since 2009, he has been assigned to hear juvenile delinquency cases. And since 2014, he has served as the supervising judge of the Winnebago County Juvenile Courts Division.
Judge Yarbrough is a Rockford native who graduated from Guilford High School in 1979. He received his bachelor’s from Ripon College and his juris doctor from Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Among his decades of service, Judge Yarbrough served as a member and past president of the Rock Valley Area Big Brothers Big Sisteres Board of Directors; a judicial liaison to the Children and Our Courts Board of Directors; member of the board of directors for the Blackhawk Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a member and sponsor of the Veterans Memorial Hall Black History Month committee’s Tuskegee Airmen and Montford Point Marines programs. Judge Yarbrough is a member of the I Bike Rockford Bicycle advocacy organization and a board member of 17th Circuit Therapy Dog Volunteers, Inc.
“Judge Yarbrough has contributed so much to the youth of our community from his current position. He has always had their welfare, and the long term betterment of our community as his guiding purpose,” said Chief Judge Eugene Doherty. “He impacted many, and he will be missed by many.”