Edward Stern, retired Judge of the Superior Court, passed away on March 20, 2017,
at the age of 96.
Ed grew up in the Bronx and, despite the proximity of Yankee Stadium, was a life-long Giants fan. He graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School (the Bronx High School of Science hadn't been built yet) and completed all but one semester at New York University before joining the Army Air Corps in World War II, during which he flew 38 combat missions as a Lead Navigator on B-24s in the Pacific. Upon his return, he attended Harvard Law School (which considered his years of getting shot at while in the service the equivalent of his one missing semester), graduating with Harvard Law's first post-war class in 1945.
Ed was the senior partner at the law firm he began, Stern, Stotter, Rosenberg, & O'Brien, representing a wide range of clients, including college students and professors who were prosecuted for participating in the civil rights protests of the 1960s, and both individual plaintiffs and corporate defendants in civil litigation throughout his many years as a practicing attorney.
In 1964, he headed a group of Bay Area lawyers who went to Mississippi for the purpose of taking the depositions of African American citizens who had been denied the right to vote, and using those depositions to challenge the seating of the Mississippi Congressional Delegation. Although the challenge was not successful, the favorable response it received from many members of the House of Representatives, as well as the public awareness it generated, were instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act the following year.
In 1979, Ed accepted an appointment to the San Francisco bench, where he served for fifteen years, the majority as Chief of the Criminal Division of the Superior Court and two as Presiding Judge. In 1994, Ed retired from the court to become one of the founders of the Northern California office of JAMS, which grew to become the nation's largest provider of arbitration and mediation services.
Whether on the court or as an arbitrator and mediator, Ed exemplified all of the best qualities one would hope to find in a judge, resolving countless cases with an incisive and insightful knowledge of the law, an even hand, and an abiding commitment to justice.
He is survived by his wife, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney, his brother Julian (Dorothy), his three children, Katy (Johanna Hamel), Andy (Laura Arias) and Judy (Dan Mihalovich), and his four grandchildren, Zachary, Nate, Cayla, and Cassius.
He did much to make the world a better place for everyone.
Services will be held on Friday, March 24, 2017 at 12:30 P.M. at Sinai Memorial Chapel, 1501 Divisadero St., San Francisco. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Ed's memory and to preserve those of the millions who left this world in far less gracious times.