Los Angeles County
Biographies
DWIGHT W.
STEPHENSON
A member of the well known law firm of Stephenson and
Palmer, Dwight W. Stephenson is accounted one of the leading attorneys of Los Angeles and has met
with gratifying success in the practice of his profession. He was born in Oneida,
Knox county, Illinois,
January 18, 1893, a son of Andrew Stephenson and a grandson of George
Stephenson, who emigrated to this country from Scotland,
settling in Oneida, Illinois, soon after the town was founded.
Andrew Stephenson lived in Oneida until 1906,
when he came to California, locating at Glendale, where he
engaged in the real estate business until shortly before his death. His widow, Kathryn (West) Stephenson, also a
native of Illinois, still resides in Glendale. Her father, Byron Stanhope West, was a scion
of an English family that was established in this country in colonial days and
some of its members participated in the Revolutionary war. In a covered wagon
the father made the journey from New York state to Illinois with Rev.
George W. Gale and they were the founders of Galesburg
and also of Knox College.
Dwight W. Stephenson pursued his education in his native
town until he reached the age of thirteen, when he came with the family to the
Pacific coast, and attended high school at Glendale, California. After his graduation he enrolled as a student
in the University
of Southern California,
from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1914. Admitted to the California
bar on the 20th of January, 1915, he began his legal career in Los Angeles and was
associate counsel for the Title Guarantee & Trust Company until October,
1917, when he enlisted in the United States Army for service in the World
war. He was sent to the officers training school at Camp
Taylor near Louisville,
Kentucky, where he was commissioned a second
lieutenant, after which he was detailed for duty as an instructor at Camp Jackson
near Columbia, South Carolina, remaining there until he was
mustered out at the close of the war.
Following his return to Los Angeles, Mr. Stephenson engaged in
general practice with Mattison B. Jones and in 1920,
when they were joined by Leonard Wilson, the style of
Jones, Wilson & Stephenson was adopted.
This relationship existed until Mr. Wilson was elevated to the bench, at
which time W. Fleet Palmer and John R. Moore were admitted as partners, and the
firm name became Jones, Stephenson, Palmer & Moore, constituting one of the
strong legal combinations of Los
Angeles. In
1930 the firm name was changed to Stephenson & Palmer. They specialize in corporation and probate
law but are also general practitioners and are entrusted with legal interests
of importance.
On the 23rd of April, 1920, was solemnized the marriage of
Dwight W. Stephenson and Gladys Justema, a native of
Chicago and a daughter of William Justema, a retired
business man. The only child of this marriage is a daughter, Janet.
In politics a strong
democrat, Mr. Stephenson is active in behalf of the party as a member of the
state central committee and chairman of the county central committee. From 1920 until 1923 he was a councilman of Glendale, performing his
civic duties with the thoroughness that has always characterized his legal
work. A Mason, he is a member of Unity
Lodge, No. 368, F. & A. M., of which he is a past master; Unity Chapter,
No. 116, R.A.M.; and Glendale Commandery, No. 53,
K.T. He is inspector of the eighty-sixth
Masonic district and an exemplary representative of the craft. He belongs to the County, State and American
Bar Associations. His mind is logical,
analytical and inductive in its trend and in his practice he has steadfastly
adhered to the highest ethical standards of the profession.
Transcribed
2-23-12 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
135-137, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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