Career
He received a Juris Doctor from Dickinson School of Law in 1970, and was a law clerk to Judge Lee F. Swope, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1969 to 1970. Gawthrop was in private practice in West Chester from 1970 to 1978. He was an assistant district attorney of West Chester from 1971 to 1978, and then of Wayne County, Pennsylvania from 1976 to 1977.
He was a judge on the Court of Common Pleas, Chester County, Pennsylvania from 1978 to 1988, also serving as an adjunct professor at the Dickinson School of Law from 1981 to 1982.
On September 30, 1987, Gawthrop was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania vacated by J. William Ditter, Junior. Gawthrop was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 8, 1987, and received his commission on December 9, 1987.
Gawthrop served in that capacity until his death, in Philadelphia, at the age of 56.
