Friday, January 4, 2002
Page 3
Memorial Services Slated for Jan. 12 in Long Beach for Judge G. William Dunn
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A Jan. 12 memorial service has been scheduled for retired Long Beach Municipal Court Judge G. William Dunn.
The service is set for 3 p.m. at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel, 111 East Ocean Blvd.
Dunn died Dec. 12 of complications following a stroke. He was 71.
His brother, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Reginald Dunn, said at the time that a public service would be delayed because of the holidays.
Judge Bill Dunn was well known on the Long Beach court, but served much of his career on assignment to the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Second District Court of Appeal.
A native of Harlem, he worked as a bellhop at the Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia and as a porter on the Soo Line railroad before graduating from Ohio State University in 1956 with a degree in physical education. He later earned a master’s degree in French history and began work on a Ph.D., but decided instead to move to Los Angeles and become a teacher.
He later earned a law degree from USC. His career took him to the Long Beach Legal Aid Foundation and private practice with the firms of Wilson & Dunn and Dunn & Goldstein.
He was elected to the Long Beach Municipal Court in 1978. He served as presiding judge in 1980.
Dunn primarily handled a criminal calendar for the first decade of his bench career, until the District Attorney’s Office took exception to a ruling and issued a blanket affidavit, in effect ousting him from any assignment that required him to hear felony matters. He was reassigned to civil cases, and began a long tenure in the same courthouse sitting on assignment as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company