RIP Justice Rylaarsdam (1937-2020)

Today's DJ has Justice Moore's obituary tribute: Justice William F. Rylaarsdam, 1937-2020: From a village in Holland to the California Court of Appeal.

• Justice Rylaarsdam's first legal job, as a law clerk at the firm of Welch and Cummings, was arranged by his law school professor, Otto Kaus, who later became a California Supreme Court justice. The first case he ever tried, and lost for $1,250, was before the Hon. John Arguelles, who also ended up on the California Supreme Court.
• Justice Rylaarsdam practiced law for over 21 years, trying hundreds of cases, and was also involved in Pasadena politics. 
• In 1985, Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Justice Rylaarsdam to the superior court, first in Los Angeles and nine months later Orange County. 
• Governor Pete Wilson appointed Justice Rylaarsdam to the Court of Appeal in 1995. 

See also Moore, Dutch Treat, 28:2 Cal. Litig. (2015).

The DJ's obituary is William R. Rylaarsdam, 1937-2020: Fearsome justice mentored generations of attorneys.

• Colleagues remember Rylaarsdam as a prolific writer. He co-authored two law textbooks and wrote dozens of articles for the litigation section of the California State Bar. He was one of the longest-serving justices in the history of the 4th District, and a mentor to multiple generations of attorneys.
• Rylaarsdam grew up in The Netherlands under Nazi-occupation during World War II. He would later describe how his father built a false ceiling into part of the family's house to hide himself and other working age men from the Germans who were seeking slave labor.
• Rylaarsdam picked peaches with his father to make ends meet when he first arrived, something he said in later interviews helped him decide he wanted a professional career. He skipped high school, working a switchboard at the Modesto Bee while attending junior college. UC Berkeley would later give him a full scholarship.
• He worked for a veterinary supply company before choosing Loyola Law School over USC Gould School of Law, largely because it was less expensive. His son Daniel also attended Loyola Law School, while one of his grandsons is currently enrolled there.
• "Bill Rylaarsdam wasn't so much a jurist as a movie of the week," fellow Division Three Justice William W. Bedsworth wrote in an email. Rylaarsdam earned his tough reputation when unprepared attorneys entered his courtroom, according to Bedsworth.
• "He was a brilliant jurist, as fine a legal mind as I've ever encountered," Bedsworth wrote. "And he was not shy about displaying that brilliance. He not only did not suffer fools gladly, he did not suffer them at all."