William Wenner

1930 - 2016

The Honorable William Watkins Wenner, retired judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, 3rd Appellate Circuit, died peacefully on May 27, 2016 at Buckingham's Choice Retirement Community in Adamstown, Maryland. He was 85.

Born on September 24, 1930 to the late William Baker and Eleanor Watkins Wenner, Judge Wenner was a proud resident of Brunswick, Maryland for most of his life. After graduating from the University Of Maryland Law School, he and his devoted wife Lila moved back to Brunswick in 1959. They raised their two children and lived for 50 years on family land on Petersville Road, just within the city limits of Brunswick, in a home they built in 1963 next door to where he grew up.

Judge Wenner's legacy spanned a significant part of Brunswick's history. The judge was last in the line of one side of seven generations of the Elder William Wenner, a founder of the German Reformed Church in Lovettsville, Virginia, which was known as the German Settlement. Many Lovettsville residents, including the Wenners, later migrated across the Potomac River into the area that is now Brunswick.

He was also the last of his clan to live on family land in Brunswick on what remained of his great-grandfather Charles Fenton Wenner's farm. From the 1850s until his death in 1882, C.F. Wenner operated a 550 acre farm that spanned the length of North Maple Avenue in an area known to longtime residents as "Wenner's Hill", and a mill on the C&O Canal. During the Civil War, the C.F. Wenner home "Glenwood", on what is now Souder Road, was used as a headquarters by Union Generals McClellan and Meade as the Army of the Potomac skirmished in the area with Robert E. Lee's Confederate troops before and after the battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Gettysburg.

Judge Wenner's father, merchant W.B. Wenner, owned and operated the last 50 acres of the family farm, as well as two grocery stores in Brunswick. His father was one of many town merchants who generously extended credit to Brunswick residents at his stores during the Great Depression. A renowned storyteller, Judge Wenner often told of how local laborers were delighted to have work building the family home on Petersville Road during those troubled times.

About Wenner's City Meat Market, which operated on the corner of Potomac Street and Virginia Avenue on the present site of the Brunswick Volunteer Ambulance Company, where his father prevailed on him to work as a child and even on leaves from the U.S. Army, Judge Wenner said this: "Dad sold freshly dressed chickens, freshly killed beef and pork, puddin' and ponhaus, in season, gasoline, fuel oil and the like. He did a good credit business. We were never allowed to say we were out of anything. We'd say we had it and then go down to another store and buy from someone else if we had to.'"

The judge attended the old West End Brunswick Elementary School and Brunswick High School before graduating from St. James School near Hagerstown, Maryland in 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1952 and an LL.B. from the University Of Maryland Law School in Baltimore, Maryland in 1958. He held an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland after having taught Business Law there for many years. He served as staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean conflict from 1952-54, stationed at Fort Belvoir in Vienna, Virginia.

In the course of a distinguished career in the legal field, Judge Wenner began as an associate of the Frederick, Maryland law firm of Richard E. Zimmerman in 1959. He served as Frederick County Assistant States Attorney from 1962-64 before forming a partnership with Frederick attorney and future Judge Herbert L. Rollins in 1966. From a successful firm that eventually grew to become Rollins, Wenner, Price & Tisdale, Judge Wenner was immensely proud that two of his partners, Rollins and John H. Tisdale, also rose to Frederick County District and Circuit Court judgeships.

As an attorney, he was a member of the Advisory Council on Child Welfare from 1967-70; Governor's Commission on Children and Youth from 1972-77; Governor's Commission to Study Implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1973-77; and counsel to the Joint Legislative Committee to Study Maryland Domestic Relations Laws, 1972.

His judicial career began in 1978 when he was appointed Associate Judge of the Frederick County District Court 11 by Governor Blair Lee. Judge Wenner was later appointed to the Frederick County Circuit Court, 6th Judicial Circuit, by Governor Lee in 1980 and was elected to a full term in 1982 by a resounding margin. His family rallied around him to campaign door-to-door all over the county to turn out support in a hard-fought race. Marked by his capstone appointment by Governor Harry Hughes to the State Court of Special Appeals in 1985, Maryland's 2nd highest court, he was Chairman of the Judicial Ethics Committee from 1990-2000. He was the first Frederick County lawyer appointed to one of Maryland's highest courts and the last Frederick County sitting judge to preside over a death penalty trial.

In addition to his legal career, Judge Wenner was highly active in other impactful endeavors. Before becoming a jurist, he was chairman of the board of Maryland Blue Cross Blue Shield. He was also a longtime leader in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. Having served on the Bishop's standing committee, he was chairman of the board of trustees at his alma mater, St. James School and the Claggett Diocesan Center. He was a member and past president of the Brunswick Rotary Club; the Frederick Kiwanis Club and the Frederick Touchdown Club; as well as the Maryland Club in Baltimore.

The judge was a lifetime fan of Baltimore sports and a longtime season ticket holder of both the Orioles and Colts during their glory years from 1958-1975. He and his partner and best friend Herb Rollins were avid fans of world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and traveled to New York City by train on several occasions to watch Frazier fight at Madison Square Garden, including his successful title fights against Buster Mathis, Jimmy Young and Mohammad Ali.

For years, Judge and Mrs. Wenner were famous to local residents, whether they knew them personally or not, for walking several miles each day. The Wenners loved their second home in Ocean City, Maryland and traveled the world.

Judge Wenner is survived by his son Peter and wife Maria Wenner of San Francisco, California; daughter Eleanor Wenner Kerr and husband Stuart Kerr of University Park, Maryland; granddaughter, Marian Kerr of Washington, D.C; and sister Ann Wenner Osteen and husband Dr. C. Lamont Osteen of Savannah, Georgia. He was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, the former Lila Ward Chichester, in 2014.

A funeral service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church in Brunswick on June 18, 2016 at 11 am, the Reverend Anjel Scarborough presiding. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations made in Judge Wenner's memory to Grace Church, 114 East A Street, Brunswick, MD 21716.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Stauffer Funeral Home. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.staufferfuneralhome.com.