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Gregory Ellis "Greg" Mathis (born April 5, 1960) is a retired Michigan 36th District Court judge and syndicated television show arbiter on the long-running reality courtroom show ''Judge Mathis''. Produced in Chicago, Illinois, the program has been on the air since 1999 and is currently into its 17th season as of September 7, 2015. Mathis boasts the longest reign of any African American presiding as a court show judge, beating out ''Judge Joe Brown'' whose program lasted 15 seasons. Mathis is also the second longest serving television arbitrator ever, behind Judith Sheindlin of ''Judge Judy''. A spiritually inspired play, ''Been there, Done that'', based on his life toured twenty-two cities in the U.S. in 2002. In addition, ''Inner City Miracle'', a memoir, was published by Ballantine Books. ==Early life== Mathis was born in Detroit, Michigan, was the fourth of four boys born to Charles Mathis, a Detroit native, and his wife Alice Lee Mathis, a devoted Seventh-day Adventist, nurse's aide, and housekeeper. Alice (then divorced from Charles) raised Mathis alone in Detroit during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Mathis' real father was estranged from him, but associated closely with the Errol Flynns, a past notorious Detroit street gang, that Mathis would eventually join while a teenager. In the 1970s, he was arrested numerous times. While he was incarcerated in Wayne County Jail, as a seventeen-year-old juvenile, his mother visited him and broke the news that she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Mathis was offered early probation because of his mother's illness. Once out of jail, Mathis began working at McDonald's, a job he needed to keep in order to maintain his release on probation. A close family friend helped Mathis get admitted to Eastern Michigan University, and he discovered a new interest in politics and public administration. He became a campus activist and worked for the Democratic Party, organizing several demonstrations against South African Apartheid policies. He graduated with a B.S. Public Administration from the Ypsilanti campus and began to seek employment in Detroit's City Hall. He also became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Mathis met his eventual wife, Linda, a fellow EMU student, shortly after his mother's death. They would go on to have four children together, a daughter Jade, born May 1985, daughter Camara, born October 1987, son Greg Jr. born January 1989 and son Amir, born July 1990.〔Mathis, Greg and Blair S. Walker. ''Inner City Miracle'', Ballatine: New York, 2002〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Greg Mathis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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