Daily Journal - Jun 20, 2005

Veteran Jurist Enjoyed Riding Motorcycles

Preciliano P. Recendez 1930-2005

 

LOS ANGELES - Services will take place Saturday for Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Preciliano P. Recendez.
Recendez, who had been diagnosed in May with liver cancer, died Tuesday at the City of Hope in Duarte. He was 74.
Recendez presided over Department M, a mixed-calendar courtroom, in Pasadena until June 10. He went into the hospital last Monday with a bleeding ulcer and died the next day, according to his clerk, Jolene Wright.
Recendez was active throughout his life, even in his later years. He enjoyed riding motorcycles and flying airplanes. In fact, he had recently learned to do aerobatics.
"He was the nicest man I've ever, ever known," Wright said. "He didn't have a bad bone in his body."
She remembers the time one of the defendants in his court didn't have a way to get home to the Antelope Valley. Recendez gave him $20.
"He was just that kind of a man," Wright said.
Sonia N. Villanueva was one of two attorneys who met with Recendez on a social level - about twice a month, she said.
"He was the godfather of my daughter, Grace," Villanueva said. "I wanted my little girl to know that someone like him exists."
Recendez would also meet for lunch with Deputy County Counsel Andrew L. Hurley.
"I'm really fortunate to have had the opportunity to know him," Hurley said. "He set the bar really high in terms of being a good person."
Recendez became a lawyer late in life - at age 53 - after he had retired from Xerox Corp. He also had worked for Pacific Telephone after serving in combat as a Marine in Korea.
Recendez received an Associate of Arts degree from East Los Angeles College and then a bachelor's degree in business administration from California State University, Los Angeles.
He graduated from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law in 1981 and went into private practice until he became a Los Angeles Municipal Court commissioner in 1995. Five years later, he was elevated by unification to the Superior Court.
Recendez was known for having a great sense of humor that he used to help maintain a relaxed atmosphere in an otherwise frenetic courtroom.
"It was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had to have worked with him," Villanueva said.
"He was the type of person who gave lawyers a good name," she said.
Recendez is survived by Rita Recendez, his wife of 51 years; his four children; sons David and Paul Recendez and daughters Genet Hechinova and Andrea Carbone; and five grandchildren.
Services will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Sky Rose Chapel at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mills Road in Whittier.