Then, in 1994, he became a judge — a moment his son describes as the proudest of his life. He served on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice until 2010. 

Pitt's oral history, taken by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History between 2008 and 2010, gives a glimpse of how Pitt himself felt in that moment, telling his interviewer he was "thrilled" as well as "determined to serve with humility and fairness." 

A legal legacy 

For lawyer Selwyn Pieters, Pitt was also a mentor who offered him advice and friendship as a law student and young lawyer. 

"He went to law schools and spoke to students, he met students in his office, he had students in his courtroom," said Pieters. 

Friends, family and colleagues are mourning the loss of Justice Romain Pitt, a trailblazing lawyer and judge who died last week at the age of 84. 

Born in Grenada and arriving in Toronto at the age of 19 to study at the University of Toronto, Pitt went on to co-found the first partnership of black lawyers in Canada and serve as a founding director of Caribana, now know as the Toronto Caribbean Carnival.

"You hear the term 'self-made man,'" said his son, Kevin Pitt, in an interview with CBC Toronto.