The man who has served as judge of Henry County Common Pleas and Probate Court for the past ten years will be retiring from the bench on September 1st. Judge John S. Collier of Deshler was elected as Common Pleas Judge in November 2010, and re-elected in 2016.
Judge Collier is a 1971 Patrick Henry grad, and then attended Wittenberg University, earning a degree in economics. He took a position as assistant village administrator in the town of New Carlisle, Ohio; and then went to law school. Judge Collier earned his law degree from the University of Toledo, and worked for firms in Bowling Green and Toledo; before heading back to Henry County to join John Sunderman in Deshler. John Collier was working there, and served five different villages as their solicitor: Deshler, Hamler, Holgate, Malinta, and Cygnet. In 1995, Governor Voinovich appointed Collier as Municipal Judge in Henry County, which was a part-time position. During his tenure, he oversaw the move of Municipal Court from the Napoleon City building to the Oakwood Office complex. Besides serving Henry County as Judge, John Collier has coached baseball in his community, from t-ball, through little league and pony league, and then served as an assistant coach with Greg Inselmann and Shawn Sunderman on the Patrick Henry high school baseball state title teams of 2008 and 2009.To fill the vacant position in Henry County when Judge Collier retires in September; the Henry County Republican Central Committee will likely submit several candidates to the Governor’s office. And the appointment will be made by Mike DeWine.