William Schnedar

JUDGE SCHNEDAR, WILLIAM BILL JOSEPHA prayer service is scheduled for 7:00 P.M., Sunday, September 28, 2008 at St. Peters, Catholic Church with a Memorial Mass at 2:00 p.m. Monday, September 29, 2008 at St. Peters Catholic Church for Judge William Bill Schnedar, age 75, of Roswell, Fr. Paul Juniet, OFM of St. Peters Catholic Church will Officiate.

Judge Schnedar died peacefully on September 24, 2008, after battling cancer over the last 18 months. Bill was born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico, spent his adult career as a lawyer and judge here, and, together with his wife, raised nine children, all of whom graduated from Roswell High School.

Bill was born at St. Marys Hospital on February 6, 1933 a day when the weather was thirty degrees below zero. Bill, his brother John, and his sister Jeanne grew up in a house on the corner of College and Atkinson, a spot that now hosts the Roswell Zoo. As a boy, Bill and his brother John swam in the Berrendo River.

Bill attended St. Peters Catholic School through 8th grade, and the New Mexico Military Institute for high school, graduating in 1950. While attending the University of New Mexico on a Naval ROTC scholarship, Bill met and fell in love with a young woman from Pampa, Texas, Zudie Brown. They married in 1954, two days after he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy.

Bill and Zudie lived in San Diego, California while Bill, as an amphibious line officer, served three tours in the South Pacific and one tour to Alaska and Canada where he served as the assistant operations officer for the 1956 DEW line re-supply mission. After being discharged from the Navy, Bill and Zudie and their two children returned to New Mexico so that Bill could attend the University of New Mexico Law School. By the time Bill graduated from law school, he and his wife Zudie already had four children, but he nevertheless managed to graduate first in his class.

In 1960, Bill and Zudie moved to Roswell where Bill began his legal career by joining Lake Frazier and Jack Cusack in a law practice. Along the way, he and Zudie had five more children. In 1980, Bill left private practice after 21 years to become a judge of the Fifth Judicial District, where he served for more than 14 years before retiring in 1995. Some of his many accomplishments on the bench include computerizing the Fifth Judicial District, increasing access to pro se litigants in family court, starting a mediation program in Chaves County, and bringing improvements to child custody proceedings. With the help of State Senator Tim Jennings, Bill persuaded the legislature to provide equal pay state-wide for court employees. In 1995, Bill received the Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the State Bar of New Mexico.
PBills civic activities have included serving as a member of the Roswell City Council, the President of St. Peters Parish Council, Director of the New Mexico Municipal League, a member of the Knights of Columbus, and a member of the Kiwanis Club. Bill enthusiastically supported al

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