Malibu Judge John Merrick, who provided decades of service to the community, died last week at the age of 93.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
As a Malibu founding father, World War II vet, benevolent judge, outdoorsman, father of eight and sketch comedy writer, Judge John J. Merrick crammed enough into his life to fill a shelfful of books. When he died last week, at age 93, he left a legacy of evenhanded jurisprudence coupled with deep devotion to preserving Malibu’s history.
“He was a brilliant, fair and compassionate judge, “ said Terry Adamson, who had worked as a deputy district attorney in Merrick’s court and was a longtime family friend. “He cared so much for the people of Malibu. Really, just a prince of a man.”
Merrick was born in New Haven, Conn., but grew up in the Bronx. A youthful athlete, he played baseball with the Associated Press team while working as a journalist. The team would slip a few dollars to a groundskeeper at the old Yankee Stadium, who would let them in to play while the pro team was on the road.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a lieutenant during World War II in Southern California. Merrick liked Malibu, so he stayed.
After the war, he wrote jokes for actor and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (and Charlie McCarthy) while serving as a trust officer at a Beverly Hills bank, before deciding to attend law school. His degree allowed him to run for an open judicial seat in Malibu/Calabasas in 1964. Merrick ended up being Malibu’s presiding judge for 26 years, developing a deep love of Malibu’s history and culture along the way.
“When Dad was first in Malibu right after the war, he turned down a chance to buy two acres in Point Dume for $2,400. Everyone told him, ‘You can’t build on Point Dume because it’s too windy,’” Brian Merrick, the judge’s youngest son, said. “So he took his G.I. Bill loan and bought the last lot on Latigo Canyon.”
During his tenure on the bench, Merrick became known as “the law west of Topanga,” and the de facto mayor of Malibu before the city was incorporated. His authority led the charge to stop development of a nuclear power plant in Corral Canyon and pushed the Las Virgenes Water District to pipe water to Malibu’s growing population.
“He was extremely fair with everyone from the bench,” Louis Busch, a friend of Merrick’s, said. “If they were guilty, he’d give it to them. But if there was reason for leniency, he would be gentle. He was really invested in his courtroom.”
He presided over the personal, like Madonna’s marriage to Sean Penn in a supposedly secret Malibu bluff ceremony, and the chilling, like when he signed the search warrant sending police to Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, where they arrested Charles Manson following the Tate-LaBianca murders. He taught law at Pepperdine University and Santa Monica College. Judicially, Merrick’s crowning achievement was his stint on the California Appellate Court, where he wrote several published legal opinions, his son said.
“Dad even wrote articles for The Malibu Times during the ‘40s and ‘50s,” Brian Merrick said. “I think that’s why he wanted to work on the Appellate Court. He loved writing and knew he could publish his opinions.”
Throughout his life, Merrick’s deep fondness for all things Malibu led him to help establish a number of charitable organizations, including the local Optimist Club chapter, the Malibu Art Association, the Pepperdine Crest Associates, the Heart Association and the Township Council.
He also established a scholarship at Pepperdine to award to students interested in public service. When the city finally incorporated in 1991, Merrick ran for City Council, but came in sixth in the voting. He was given the Dolphin Award by The Malibu Times in 1990.
But perhaps Merrick’s greatest contribution to the city was his founding of the Malibu Historical Society and his efforts to preserve the historic Adamson House at Surfrider Beach.
“Dad did an end-run around the developers,” Brian Merrick said. “He worked with Ron Rindge to get the property registered as a historic landmark so they could never touch it.”
The resulting public park with the Malibu Lagoon Museum and superb examples of tile work are some of the only surviving examples of the artisan craftsmanship created by May Rindge’s old Malibu Potteries—about which Merrick then wrote and published a book, one of several Merrick wrote about Malibu.
After he retired, in 1986, he spent his last 26 years as a “fill-in” judge in beachside towns like Catalina and San Luis Obispo, writing and exploring Malibu’s historical Chumash heritage.
Merrick was preceded in death by his wife Marge and is survived by his eight children: Shelly Merrick, Maria Merrick, Vicki Curran, John Merrick, Liz Klein, Robert Rowland, Patricia Howard, Brian Merrick and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
“Dad was never about money, even though he came from nothing,” Brian Merrick said. “When he lived in Malibu in the ‘40s and ‘50s, he was friends with Ronald Reagan and the big studio heads. It was never a big deal. He loved the ocean and hiking. And he always said that even with all the politics and fights about development and growth, they could never take the beach away from him. Because it was a new landscape every day.”
Services for Judge Merrick are private, but the family is planning a public celebration of his life Aug. 25 in Pepperdine’s Elkins Auditorium at 12 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Pepperdine School of Law, 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90263; attention: John Merrick Law Scholarship/Erin Herrera.