Aiden Rex Victor

Rex Victor, age 88 of Lake Arrowhead, CA, passed away on April 18, 2023. Rex was born on March 2,1935, in Omaha, Nebraska, the fifth of six children of parents Fred Weldon Victor and Ida Mary Victor (née Geiger).

Rex grew up in a small apartment above a bakery and began working at an early age. He shoveled snow for coins, carried bags of groceries for shoppers, and churned ice cream for a neighbor lady. As payment for this service, Rex was allowed to lick the ice cream from the churning blades. Rex worked as a grocery clerk in the Frost & Lindell grocery store in Omaha from the age of twelve until the age of seventeen when (at the suggestion of a friend’s mother) he applied and was accepted at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Rex was the first in his family to attend college. During and in between semesters at college he supported himself in a series of odd jobs: as a laborer in a paper mill, at the Veterans Administration, and as a jobber at the Continental Bakery. Rex also worked as a carman for the Union Pacific railroad (where he oiled the brakes of the train cars), clerked at Kroger Groceries, and worked at the Armour meat packing plant in Omaha. During his time at college, he played tennis, squash, and racquetball and was employed as a squash professional at St. Louis University’s Faculty Club where, after a match with a faculty member, he was allowed a meal in the faculty dining room. Despite part-time and full-time work throughout his college years, Rex needed to borrow one hundred dollars from his college roommate to pay his tuition and finish college. He repaid the loan after graduation and remembered this roommate’s generosity for the rest of his life.

Rex received an undergraduate degree in business and finance from St. Louis University in 1956. At that time, his sister Georgia and her husband Eric Lawrence Wright invited him to come to California. “‘I was broke, in debt, but had a sister and her husband to live [with] out here,’” he said in a Daily Journal profile. Rex began his professional career at General Dynamics in Pomona and worked there from1956-1968. Rex met Rebecca Alba at General Dynamics and began a relationship of mutual love, admiration, and devotion that would last more than six decades. Rex and Becky were married on July 25, 1957.

In the course of his work as a technical analyst handling government contracts, Rex met some of the company’s lawyers, including Kenneth Ziebarth (later a California Superior Court judge) who encouraged him to go to law school. Rex observed lawyers to be interesting and smart people and enrolled in the night program at Loyola University while working full-time. During these years at General Dynamics and law school, he and Becky had five children (the last two were identical twins born on New Year’s Eve for a double tax deduction.) Rex graduated in 1967 and began his legal career as a Deputy District Attorney in San Bernardino County, eventually leaving to become a partner in the law firm of Etchason, Davidson, Liesch, Hildreth, and Victor, in Ontario CA, where he handled civil, criminal defense, and family law matters. In 1975, Rex rejoined San Bernardino County as the Assistant District Attorney, serving six years, before leaving to go into private practice as a sole practitioner where he handled the litigation of business, real estate, and criminal defense matters.

In 1986, Rex sought appointment to the Superior Court of California for San Bernardino County. In his responses to the questionnaire he was required to submit, he described his reasons for seeking to become a judge: “My reasons for seeking a judicial appointment are challenge and service. I look upon a judgeship as the capstone of a legal career. I thrive on hard work. I look forward to the opportunity to make the transition from an advocate and counselor to an arbitrator and judge with an endless changing stream of litigation to resolve. Every attorney who regularly attends the court gauges his abilities, work habits, intelligence, and knowledge of the law against his fellow attorneys and the judges before whom he appears. By this measure, I am confident of my ability to join the ranks of those who have established the highest judicial standards in serving California. Further, I have been encouraged to seek appointment by many fellow practitioners and judges before whom I appear.”

Many letters were submitted in support of Rex’s appointment by members of the San Bernardino bar and community, including judges, clients, and colleagues. Judge Martin Hildreth (a lifelong friend) described Rex’s experience and succinctly summarized his qualities: To say Rex Victor is very intelligent, skilled, and diligent as an attorney is to utter truths that fall far short of describing the man. He is a lawyer’s lawyer: an exemplar. He is that rare person who combined being a workaholic with being a fine husband and parent. Every father would be proud to have children like any one of his. In August 1986, Rex was appointed to the Superior Court by Governor Deukmejian.

Throughout his career Rex was active in the community. He was a member of the Board of Directors and served a term as president of the San Bernardino Kiwanis Club. He served on the boards of directors of the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce, the San Bernardino County Bar Association, and Inland Counties Legal Services, which provided legal services to residents of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. He volunteered at the legal aid clinic operated by Inland Counties Legal Services. He was also a trustee of the San Bernardino County Law Library for many years, both as an attorney and a judge.

During his tenure as a Superior Court judge, Rex served in almost every part of the court including the civil, criminal, and probate calendars. He acted as a judge in the Appellate Division of the Superior Court for seven years including six as the presiding judge of that division. He was perhaps best known for his service as presiding judge of the Juvenile Court, where he earned a reputation as a reformer who sought to ensure the prompt resolution of delinquency and dependency matters and that adequate resources would be available to children and families. Rex continued to serve by appointment in the Superior Court for many years after his retirement in 2006, and served on the California Court of Appeal by appointment both before and after his retirement.

Rex received nearly uniform praise as a judge in profiles published during his tenure on the Superior Court. In 2006, Rex received the Kaufman-Campbell Award, given each year to a particularly distinguished jurist by the San Bernardino County Bar Association. In an article about the award in the journal of the Bar Association, a colleague, Betty Richli, described him as “a judge’s judge.” “‘He is incredibly bright and extraordinarily conscientious,’ she said. ‘Everybody knows he’s a workaholic. He maintains a great demeanor. He really is what I think most people who come into a courtroom want to see on the bench.’”

As central as it was to Rex’s life and persona, his career was only part of a life that was full, demanding, and rewarding. He was devoted to, and proud of his wife Becky, and their five daughters. Perhaps Rex’s greatest pleasure was acting as the host for family gatherings at his and Becky’s home in Lake Arrowhead. His children and grandchildren regularly gathered for Christmas or Thanksgiving, and other times of the year. Rex enjoyed presiding over these family gatherings, basking in the affection of his family, partaking in the often chaotic conversations in which, as he often said, “no word went uninterrupted,” and dispensing “domingo”-small gifts of cash-to his children and grandchildren.

Rex also was an avid fisherman, taking trips to blue-ribbon trout waters such as the Green River in Utah, the San Juan River in New Mexico, and the Fall River in Northern California. Many of these trips became justifications for vacations with his children and grandchildren. As an adult he revived his childhood enjoyment of ice skating and could be found gliding around the local ice rink in Blue Jay. Rex also enjoyed target practice (volunteering at the local range) and trained his grandchildren in the skills of gun safety, reloading ammunition, and target practice. In retirement, Rex took up gardening and landscaping his mountain home.

Rex was a lifelong and incessant reader. He not only donated many books to the local the school library, he also stocked his Little Free Library® box in front of his home with hardback thrillers, novels, and nonfiction books for his neighbors. His beloved number three daughter, Cathy, had the presence of mind to bring him a book in the hospital for what turned out to be his last day of reading.

If you’ve read this far and you’d like to honor the memory of Rex Victor, please consider a contribution to the Prison Literature Project, an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization whose purpose is to “encourage reading, the pursuit of knowledge, and self-determination among incarcerated people”--objectives which align with Rex’s own lifelong practices.

Rex was preceded in death by his wife, Rebecca Victor; his siblings, Fred Victor, Georgia Wright, Joanne Romano, Frances Otterson, and Robert Victor; and his parents, Fred and Ida Victor. He is survived by his daughters, Margaret Victor, Elizabeth Victor, Cathy Burns, Carol Victor, and Carmen Victor; his sons-in-law, Brad Burns, James Chadwick, and Rene White; his grandchildren, Ryan Burns (Robin) and Clayton Burns, Elena, Isabel, and Joseph Chadwick, Rex, Beatrix, and Margaret White; and his great-grandson, Aiden Michael Burns.

A memorial service will take place on Thursday, May 25, at 11 am at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Lake Arrowhead, California.