Russell S. Waite, 85; Former Judge in Hughes’ ‘Mormon Will’ Dispute

Funeral services were held Saturday for Russell S. Waite, a former judge and probate commissioner who participated in proceedings on the so-called “Mormon Will” of the Howard Hughes estate.

The 85-year-old Waite, who died of cancer Thursday at his home in San Clemente, served as a Riverside County deputy district attorney from 1938 to 1941 and was elected to the Riverside County Superior Court bench in 1946.

After retiring from that post in 1966, Waite moved to Las Vegas, where he was an administrator of the Las Vegas District Court. He later became a probate commissioner in the dispute over Hughes’ “Mormon Will.”

The document was one of several purported wills that surfaced after Hughes died in April, 1976. It was known as the “Mormon Will” because it named as a beneficiary the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Waite was born Aug. 22, 1905, in Wisconsin and moved to Riverside in 1910. He earned his law degree from Stanford University and was admitted to the California Bar in 1932.

In addition to his legal career, Waite served on the board of education of what is now the Riverside Unified School District from 1941 to 1946.

He is survived by his wife, Betty; a son, a daughter, two stepdaughters, five grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. Services were held at the Ray Family Mortuary in San Clemente.