Judge Robert A. Waters was elected to the bench in the Fourth Judicial Circuit (then Wood and Wirt Counties) in 1992 and re-elected in 2000, 2008, and 2016. In 2024, he was re-elected to the new Fourth Judicial Circuit, now consisting only of Wood County. 

Judge Waters was born and raised in Parkersburg. He graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1973 and has a 1976 bachelor’s degree in government and economics from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a 1979 law degree from West Virginia University College of Law. In law school, he was a member of the West Virginia Law Review and won the AmJur Award in Criminal Law.

He was in private practice in Parkersburg from 1979 to 1992 and was an Assistant Wood County Prosecutor from 1979 to 1982 and from 1989 to 1992.

Judge Waters is a member of the West Virginia Judicial Association and the West Virginia Bar Association. He attended the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada in Reno and received a Diploma of Judicial Skills from the American Judges Association.

He is a past president of the Henry Logan Children’s Home and a longtime member of the Rotary and Boy Scouts.

He and his wife, Robin, have three children.