Paul B. Ebert, a Falls Church native who went on to become the longest-serving Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia history and one of the most recognizable prosecutors in the Commonwealth, died June 23 at the age of 88.
While much of Virginia came to know Ebert through his lengthy legal career and a series of nationally publicized criminal prosecutions, his roots were firmly planted in Falls Church.
According to longtime Falls Church residents, Ebert grew up on Lincoln Avenue, the son of Dr. Ebert, a well-known Falls Church dentist whose practice served generations of local families. Many local athletes were also among his patients. The Ebert family was a familiar presence in the city during an era when Falls Church was still a small town where neighbors knew one another and children walked to school.
Ebert attended George Mason High School with fellow Falls Church residents John Reimers and Ted White, who later spent many years as copy editor of the Falls Church News-Press. They came of age in a community that would undergo tremendous change as Northern Virginia expanded in the decades following World War II.
Born Sept. 23, 1937, in Roanoke, Virginia, Ebert moved to Northern Virginia with his family as a young child. He earned a business degree from Virginia Tech and later received his law degree from George Washington University while attending classes at night and working during the day.
His legal career began in Falls Church, where he worked for a law firm that later expanded into Prince William County and became Ebert & Murphy. While in private practice, he also served part-time as an assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, gaining the courtroom experience that would shape the rest of his professional life.
In 1967, at age 30, Ebert was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for Prince William County. What began as a promising start turned into one of the longest tenures in Virginia legal history. He would ultimately serve Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park for 52 years before retiring in 2019.
Over the next five decades, Ebert prosecuted thousands of criminal cases and became a central figure in some of Virginia’s most widely publicized trials. He gained national attention during the prosecutions arising from the Lorena Bobbitt case in the early 1990s and later led the prosecution of Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad following the 2002 attacks that terrorized the Washington region.
When he retired, Ebert had served longer than any Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia history. His career spanned a period of enormous growth and change in Northern Virginia, from a time when Prince William County remained largely rural to its emergence as one of the state’s largest jurisdictions.
From Falls Church to Manassas, Paul Ebert’s life traced the growth of Northern Virginia itself. His career left an indelible mark on Virginia’s legal system, while his story remained rooted in the small city where he spent his childhood and where the Ebert name became known to generations of local families.
Paul Ebert is remembered both for his historic career in public service and as a son of Falls Church whose life journey began in this close-knit community.
