Los Angeles
County
Biographies
HON.
JOHN PERRY WOOD
A
leader of the Los Angeles bar, a prominent civic worker, a very successful
attorney, and a man, who has also served with honor as a superior judge of Los
Angeles County, is the Hon. John Perry Wood, now practicing law in Los Angeles,
with offices in the Rowan Building on Spring Street. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 30,
1879, a son of Rev. John Allen and Ida Lewis (Perry) Wood, and received his
academic education in the public schools of Everett, Pennsylvania, where most
of his early life was spent. He was
later graduated from Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he
received his degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in 1900. Mr. Wood then entered Yale University and in
1902 was given his degree of LL.B. That
same year he came to California and soon opened a law office in Pasadena for the
general practice of his profession. He
built up a very substantial clientele and in 1906 was appointed city attorney
of Pasadena and served for four years.
While in that office he conducted the litigations and negotiations
establishing the municipal water, and the municipal power and light systems in
Pasadena. He also attracted nation-wide
attention among corporation lawyers in successfully conducting litigation
against the Bell Telephone Company which resulted in the consolidation of the
local companies, and established the respective and reciprocal rights and
duties of municipalities and franchise holders in the streets of cities in
California.
In
1910 Mr. Wood relinquished his private practice to assume the duties of a
superior judge of Los Angeles County to which he had been elected by the people
and he continued in that high office for a period of fourteen years, resigning
in 1925 to again take up private practice. His professional
interests cover a wide field and he has been successful in a wide variety of
cases. He is an authority on subjects
related to decedents’ estates and on judicial reform procedure. He has written many articles relating to
methods for improving the administration of law. In 1925 upon the establishment of the
Judiciary Council, he was selected by the California Bar Association to argue
for a liberal interpretation of the constitutional provisions in order that the
Council function effectively in the in the control of the judicial
machinery. He has spent a great deal of
time endeavoring to bring about a different method of selected judges to the
Supreme Court.
On
June 17, 1911, Mr. Wood was united in marriage to Miss Claudine Hazen, of New
York City, and they became the parents of two sons, Walbridge, now a student of
the University of Virginia; and Dana, a high school pupil. Mrs. Wood died in 1932 and in September,
1933, Mr. Wood married Elizabeth (Monroe) Cornell, daughter of James E. Monroe
of Berkeley, California. The Judge is a
member of, and chairman of the committee of Judicial Selection of the American
Bar Association; is one of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of
California. From 1924 to 1927 he was
chairman of the judicial section of the old California Bar Association. He is also a member of the Los Angeles Bar
Association; the International Law Association; the League of Nations
Association of Southern California, of which he was president 1923 – 1924; the
World’s Court Commission of Southern California; the English Speaking Union;
and a director of the American Judicature Society. He is a Mason and his club affiliations are
with the University Club, the City Club, the Valley Hunt Club, and the Yale
Club, of which he is an ex-president. Judge
Wood is the author of the law establishing civil procedure in Municipal courts
in the state of California. His
political views are Republican on national questions although he has favored
Democratic policies at different times.
He can always be counted upon to give his support to all projects where
the welfare of the people are in question and gives liberally of his time and
means to promote the general welfare of state and people.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 311-312,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES