John C. McHose; Founding Partner of Major Law Firm

John C. (Nip) McHose, a West Coast pioneer of maritime and international law and the last founding partner of the major California law firm Lillick & McHose, died Thursday. He was 88.

McHose died of cancer at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, the firm announced.

Until he became too ill in late August, McHose had appeared for work at 6 a.m. daily in the firm’s Los Angeles office he opened more than 60 years ago.

Fresh out of Stanford University Law School, McHose had sought work with Ira Lillick’s San Francisco firm, offering to work for nothing to learn the field of maritime and international law from a master. Lillick, who died in 1967, hired him for $75 a month, and in 1929, sent him to Los Angeles to create the firm’s southern base.

Lillick & McHose, which has more than 250 lawyers, will become the second largest law firm in California on Jan. 1 when, partially through McHose’s efforts, it will merge with San Francisco’s Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.

“McHose exemplified civility and integrity. I felt personally blessed to be his partner and to enjoy his mentoring and his friendship,” said 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, who formerly practiced in McHose’s firm.

A noted trial lawyer, McHose also represented entertainment and sports celebrities, including Ruby Keeler, Dale and Roy Rogers, and the Los Angeles Rams football team and its former owner, Dan Reeves.

He was one of the first American lawyers to represent Japanese business interests in California. Active in the Japan America Society of Southern California, McHose in 1975 received the society’s diamond pin award for “outstanding contribution to promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of Japan and the United States.”

Born in Springfield, Mass., Sept. 19, 1902, and brought up in Ohio, McHose moved west to attend Stanford, where he earned the nickname “Nipper,” later shortened to “Nip,” and demonstrated the determination that later helped him build his law firm. McHose, only 5 feet, 4 inches tall, became Stanford’s first All-American basketball player.

He was also a charter member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame, and was later awarded the Stanford Athletic Board’s annual Distinguished Achievement Award. In 1955, McHose was elected president of the Stanford Alumni Assn.

Nationally, McHose served as president of the Maritime Law Assn. of the United States, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Admiralty Rules and a member of the International Maritime Committee.

In Los Angeles, he was president of the Propeller Club of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach and chairman of its World Trade Week, president of the Chancery Club, director and vice president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Wilshire Country Club, the Southern California Golf Assn., the Senior Golf Assn. of Southern California, and the California Senior’s Golf Assn.

He is survived by his wife, Helen Tedrowe McHose; his son, Terry Jon McHose of San Francisco, and a sister, Marian McHose Buzard of Arcadia.