Jurist was son of famed farmers

Hideo Chino, 65, a San Diego County Superior Court commissioner whose family owns and operates the world-renowned Chino Ranch vegetable farm stand in northern San Diego County, died Saturday at his San Diego home after battling pancreatic cancer, his friend and former business partner Dwight Worden said.

Chino, who specialized in juvenile law, had served as a court referee and then a court commissioner since 1986 until retiring this year. Before his appointment to the bench, he was in private practice and worked for a few years as assistant city attorney in Del Mar.

The seventh of nine children of Japanese immigrant farmers, Chino was born March 28, 1943, at Poston No. 3, an internment camp near Parker, Ariz., where his family was held during World War II.

After Chino’s father, Junzo, and mother, Hatsuyo, lost their land during the war, they started over in the late 1940s with about 50 acres in Rancho Santa Fe, growing fruits and vegetables that became prized for their quality and variety.

Since 1969 the family has sold produce at their roadside stand and since the 1970s supplied two restaurateurs: Alice Waters of Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse and Wolfgang Puck of Spago.

Chino grew up on the farm and graduated from San Diego State in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology. He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 1970. He had been married for the last 16 years to Sheridan Reed, now a retired San Diego Superior Court judge.

A menu in his honor featuring Chino Ranch vegetables is planned tonight at Chez Panisse, where Chino occasionally helped out in the kitchen.