Monday, August 3, 2009
Page 1
Services Set for Retired Judge William H. Winston Jr.
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Services have been scheduled for May 13 for retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William H. Winston Jr., who died last Monday at the age of 82.
Winston was a Long Beach Municipal Court judge from 1973 to 1984, and a Superior Court judge from 1984 until his retirement in 1993.
A Long Beach native who attended public schools there, he received his undergraduate degree from USC in 1949 after serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He later returned to service as a member of the Marine Corps, was on active duty during the Korean War, and achieved the rank of captain.
He earned his law degree from USC, which he attended on the G.I. Bill, and received his law degree in 1954. The son of a local attorney who was once a judge in Ketchikan, Alaska, he was in private practice, mostly as a business and probate lawyer, for 19 years, a portion of it as a sole practitioner and the rest of the time with the firms of Winston, Carroll & Winston; and Grisham, Winston, Vandenberg, Nott & Conway.
He was also active in Republican politics, serving on the county Republican Central Committee and becoming an early supporter of Ronald Reagan for governor. It was Reagan who appointed him to the bench in 1973; then-Gov. George Deukmejian elevated him 11 years later.
He was active in numerous professional, charitable, and civic organizations, serving on the Executive Board of the California Judges Association, as president of the Exchange Club of Long Beach, on the Board of Governors of the Long Beach Bar Association, and as lay leader of Bay Shore Community Congregational Church.
As a judge, he heard both civil and criminal cases. In one highly publicized case in the mid-1980s, he rejected a challenge by Jewish and Catholic groups to a Long Beach ordinance banning “break-open” or “pull-tab” bingo, a game played at bingo halls but similar to an “instant winner” lottery game in that the player knows as soon as he or she breaks the seal on a card whether it is a winner.
Winston agreed that the ordinance was a valid exercise of the police power, saying the game was susceptible to corruption.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Elaine Winston, and by daughters Rebecca and Karen and four grandchildren.
The Aug. 13 services are to be held at Bay Shore Community Congregational Church, 5100 The Toledo, Long Beach, CA 90803, beginning at 11 a.m. The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the church or to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, 162 W. 56th St.# 405, New York, N.Y.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company