Frank Caprio, the beloved Rhode Island judge whose courtroom compassion and quick wit won hearts around the world, passed away at 88. His family shared the news on Instagram, noting that he had been under treatment for pancreatic cancer.

For more than four decades, Caprio presided over cases in Providence, but it was the weekly television program Caught in Providence that introduced his distinctive style of justice equal parts fairness and heartfelt humanity to digital audiences everywhere. Patients, shopkeepers and visitors alike would arrive fearing the ticket on their windshield, and leave enchanted. The retired attorney’s generous, guy-next-door persona turned quick word of advice into life-long influences billions of views later, the Internet crowned him the “nicest judge in the world.”

Across his long judicial career, Caprio received two Daytime Emmy nominations and continued to receive letters from viewers whose lives had been quietly redirected by his gentle encouragement.

He leaves behind his wife of nearly 60 years, Joyce, five children, seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and an open courtroom in which people are still urged to “pay the nice forward,” just as he modeled. His family asks that, in his honour and under the same judge’s auspices, “spread a little kindness wherever there is a chance.”