Orville Armstrong

1929 - 2014

Orville A. Armstrong
1929-2014
Orville A. "Jack" Armstrong, born January 21, 1929, died peacefully at his home in San Marino, California on December 22, 2014.
Born in Austin, Texas, Jack moved to Galena Park, Texas as a child and graduated from Galena Park High School in 1945. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corp at 17 in 1946 where he was trained as a radar technician. He met his wife, Mary Dean Macfarlane, in Okinawa, and they married in the Philippines. Although recruited by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher, instead he received a Bachelor of Business degree with honors from the University of Texas in 1953 and joined Beta Gamma Sigma, a business school honor society. Jack received an LLB from USC Law School in 1956, and, while there, was a member of the Board of Editors of the University of Southern California Law Review and of Legion Lex.
After graduation, Jack joined Gray, Binkley and Pfaelzer, headed by William P. Gray, who was then president of the State Bar of California. In 1967, after William Gray's appointment to the United States District Court, Jack formed his own firm, Armstrong & Lloyd, in Los Angeles and, in 1975, joined the firm of Macdonald, Halsted & Laybourne as the head of its litigation department.
In 1988, the firm merged with Baker & McKenzie and in 1991, while Jack was head of Baker & McKenzie's litigation department in Los Angeles and serving on the international firm's Policy Committee, he was nominated by Governor George Deukmejian to the bench of the Los Angeles Superior Court. He enjoyed serving as juvenile court judge and often sent hand written notes of encouragement to those who appeared before him. In January 1993, Governor Pete Wilson appointed him as an associate justice for the California Court of Appeal, Division Five of the Second District Court of Appeal where he served until his retirement in June, 2013. His reputation was that of an extremely fair and unprejudiced judge.
Jack was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and all federal District courts in California. He was invited to become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was listed as one of the best business litigation lawyers in the 1989-1990 Edition of Naifeh and White's "The Best Lawyers in America." Jack argued cases before the Supreme Court of California and before the federal appellate Court of Appeals. As a justice of the Court of Appeal, he twice served as Justice Pro Tempore for the California Supreme Court. He was an active member of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He was a member of the State Bar's Board of Governors for four years and was President in 1987-88. For the Los Angeles County Bar Association, he chaired the Economic Litigation Committee and served a term on the Board of Trustees. He was a delegate to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a Director of the Ninth Circuit Historical Society, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and President of the Chancery Club.
At one time, he also had a 7 handicap.
Jack was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Dean Armstrong. He is survived by his children and their families: Louise Armstrong Glenn, her husband Larry and their three children, Dr. Elizabeth Glenn Sweeney, Travis Armstrong Glenn and Peter Armstrong Glenn; John Macfarlane Armstrong, his wife Laura Verklan and their daughter Alina Rose; and Paul Jefferson Armstrong and his children, Lauren, Katherine, Isaac and Piper.