Honorees

Hon. John Skylstead Rhoades

1925-2007

John Rhoades was born March 18, 1925 in Harve, Montana.  His family emigrated from Norway in the 1880’s.  His family moved to Southern California and he later enrolled at Stanford University for his undergraduate studies.  He cut his studies short during World War II and became a Naval Aviator in 1943 serving in the Pacific.  He left active duty in 1946 but remained in the Naval Reserves until 1966.  In 1946 he returned to his studies at Stanford, where he successfully graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1948.  Judge Rhoades went directly to law school at University of California’s Hastings College of Law where he was awarded a Juris Doctorate in 1951.

After passing the bar exam, he joined the San Diego City Attorney’s office for five years.  In 1957, he entered private practice where he remained for 28 years until being appointed to the federal bench of the United States District Court in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.  In early 1964, John approached two other colleagues in the San Diego bar with the idea of forming a new law firm.  John chose his new partners because they shared the same high ethical standards and passion for practicing law, traits which marked John Rhoades’ entire career.  The firm they founded in 1964, Holt, Macomber & Rhoades was a testament to their adherence to their founding standards.  This is evidenced by the subsequent appointments of Macomber to the San Diego Superior Court, Miller becoming the District Attorney for the County of San Diego and John to the Federal Bench.

John Holt said he hired Rhoades away from the City Attorney job for his civil litigation practice.  “John S. Rhoades gave the law firm its character.  He was its Renaissance Man who believed in the law as an instrument for justice and good, and in the practice of law as a noble profession.  . . . He emphasized that lawyers are to be true advocates.”  Though the law firm practiced civil law, Rhoades handled a variety of immigration matters (100 Years of Justice, Chronicle of the San Diego County Bar Assn, at 156).

He was one of the lead attorneys in the litigation stemming from the failure of C. Arnholt Smith’s United States National Bank in 1973. It was the largest bank failure in U.S. history up to that date.  During his time in private practice, Judge Rhoades was highly respected as a skilled trial lawyer, universally well-liked by colleagues and adversaries, and often cited as an ethical standard to model.

John’s standards as a lawyer were also his standards on the bench and in life. His dedication to knowledge and people was widely admired.  His friends and colleagues seldom saw him when he was not reading something new, be it in a book, magazine or newspaper.  John, and his wife of over 50 years, Carmel, opened their house to US servicemen and women for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  They were annual supporters of the Tijuana orphanage, Casa de Cuña.  They brought toys each Christmas and hosted orphaned children from the orphanage at their home one day each summer for cookouts and boat rides.

On the Federal bench, Judge Rhoades was a consummate hard worker.  Even after taking senior status, he worked full-time up to his leave for heart surgery in June of 2007.  He intended to return to a full case load.  During his 22 years on the Federal Bench, Judge Rhoades relished in the learning each new case required.  He was a vocal critic of the rigidity of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.  Months after their passage, in February 1988, he joined Judge Rudi M. Brewster as the first federal judges to hold the Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutional on separation of powers grounds (SDUT 12/18/90).

The San Diego Union Tribute credited Rhoades with having successfully “championed, cajoled, fumed and fussed through years of bureaucratic shuffles to save” the 1913 federal building from demolition, which was restored and renamed as the Jacob Weinberger United States Courthouse (SDUT 5/8/94).
 In 1990 he approved a highly controversial and contested redrawing of San Diego City Council districts, resulting in the City’s first Latino/a majority council district.

In all his cases he devoted himself to the knowledge, demeanor, and fairness he expected from Judges when he was a lawyer and that he knew those appearing before him were entitled.  His success as a learned and respected jurist was marked by comments he was extremely bright, very gifted, very well read, fair and even tempered, always prepared on the case, and unafraid to make the tough decisions judges often have to make.  Judge John S. Rhoades passed away on September 3, 2007. 
 

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