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Judge Pence’s
Obituaries By Pat Omandam
wit and fairness
remembered
Star-BulletinU.S. District Court Chief Judge David Alan Ezra keeps a small picture on his desk that shows retired Judge Martin Pence laughing because Ezra says that's the way he remembers his mentor and colleague.
"You always see this very stern picture of Judge Pence, and the way I remember him, of course, is very different," Ezra said. "I remember him smiling and laughing, because that's what we did a lot.
"He was a wise-cracker. He always had a witty saying."
Pence, 95, who served nearly four decades as senior U.S. District Court judge in Hawaii, died Monday at his home in Maunawili.
Pence was the first federal judge confirmed in Hawaii after statehood and was a specialist in antitrust issues. His colleagues recognized him as a mentor and friend to many notable jurists in Hawaii and throughout the U.S. judiciary, said Ezra, who met Pence in the early 1960s while a high-school student interested in law.
"He was a tremendous influence in my life, a mentor and one of the finest gentlemen I've ever known, I think one of the finest gentlemen anyone could ever know," Ezra said.
The U.S. District Court will hold a memorial court session for Pence at 4 p.m. Friday. Private family services are pending. The state plans to order flags on state buildings be flown at half staff that day to remember him.
Gov. Ben Cayetano, who as a young lawyer argued a few trial cases before Pence, called him an amazing human being and an outstanding jurist. Pence was someone whose high standards had a great impact on the legal profession in Hawaii, he said.
"He was a judge who had complete control of the court room," Cayetano said. "I thought he was fair. He could be tough on attorneys, but he was a very fair man ...
"I just think that he was a great judge, and I really respected him for all of the things he did."
David L. Callies, a Benjamin A. Kudo professor of law at the University of Hawaii law school, said Pence's opinions indicate he had an extremely sharp and incisive legal mind. His opinions were always direct and to the point, Callies said.
"He didn't waste words," he said.
Callies said when Pence disagreed with an opinion, including some on property and water rights remanded to him on appeal from the Hawaii Supreme Court, Pence suggested in "pretty strong language" that it might be useful for the Hawaii justices to consider the laws of the rest of the states.
"He came close to suggesting that some of the opinions of the court were making the law up as they went along," Callies said.
Meanwhile, Pence's sense of duty and responsibility was something Ezra understood firsthand. Pence told Ezra he was criticized by a U.S. senator once for his travels as a visiting federal judge on the mainland. But Pence felt it was his obligation and responsibility to do so, since Hawaii had received so much help during the late '60s and early '70s, when the federal judiciary in Hawaii was so understaffed, Ezra said.
"Judge Pence was uncharacteristically stoic about it," Ezra said. "He felt he had a responsibility to be of service to the people of this country as a federal judge, regardless of whether it was here in Hawaii or elsewhere."
