10/13/2026
⚖️ JUDGE ENRIQUE “HENRY” FERNANDEZ — A DEL RIO LIFE DEVOTED TO THE LAW, FAITH & COMMUNITY
Some of the portraits hanging inside the Val Verde County Courthouse represent men from a Del Rio that exists mostly in old photographs and courthouse records.
This one is different.
A great many people in Del Rio still remember the man behind the robe.
The Honorable Enrique “Henry” Fernandez, born in Del Rio on August 30, 1958, became one of those rare public servants whose life story remained deeply rooted in the community that raised him.
And before there was Judge Fernandez, there was simply Henry — a Del Rio kid who loved baseball.
Henry played Little League and Babe Ruth baseball, and his team became Babe Ruth State Champions. He graduated from Del Rio High School in 1976, where he was an outstanding member of the Rams baseball team. (Tribute Archive)
From Del Rio, he headed to the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1979. Then came the University of Houston Law Center, where he earned his law degree in 1983. (Tribute Archive)
But perhaps the most important part of that story is what happened next:
Henry Fernandez came home.
Instead of building his career somewhere far from the border, he returned to Del Rio and began practicing law with the firm of Lowrey, Foster and Hodge. (Tribute Archive)
That decision began a remarkable career in public service.
Over the years Fernandez served his community as Val Verde County Attorney, Assistant District Attorney, Interim District Attorney, and Assistant Attorney General with the Child Support Division before eventually taking the bench as Judge of Texas’ 63rd Judicial District Court. (Tribute Archive)
We can actually trace part of that career through Texas court records.
As early as 1990, a published Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision identifies Enrique Fernandez as Val Verde County Attorney, representing the State in Rodriguez v. State. (Justia Law)
Years later, his name appears again and again in appellate records — this time preceded by the words:
“Honorable Enrique Fernandez, Judge Presiding.”
His court handled the difficult business that comes before a Texas district judge: criminal cases, civil litigation, family matters, parental-rights cases and countless proceedings that profoundly affected the lives of the people standing before him. (Justia Law)
The plaque beneath his courthouse portrait records his tenure:
ENRIQUE HENRY FERNANDEZ
JAN. 1, 2009 – DEC. 31, 2020
63RD DISTRICT COURT
That represents twelve years on the district bench — but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Even after that period, Fernandez continued appearing as a presiding or assigned judge in court proceedings. In 2021, for example, the Val Verde County District Attorney’s Office reported that Fernandez was assigned to hear a Kinney County criminal case because the sitting judge had previously worked on the matter as a prosecutor. (Val Verde County)
His judicial service also carried him beyond Val Verde County. The 63rd Judicial District serves a large piece of Southwest Texas, and contemporary regional records listed Fernandez as the district judge serving from the Val Verde County Courthouse in Del Rio. (Permian Basin Commission)
Then came one of the strangest periods any modern judge has faced.
In March 2020, as COVID-19 reached Southwest Texas, Fernandez joined 83rd District Judge Robert Cadena and County Court-at-Law Judge Sergio Gonzalez in responding to directives from the Texas Office of Court Administration. Val Verde County announced that the judges planned to suspend all but the most essential proceedings while the community prepared for the pandemic. (Val Verde County)
It was another chapter in a career that stretched across decades of enormous change in Del Rio.
But courthouse records only tell part of Henry Fernandez’s story.
He was also a lifelong member and former president of Del Rio’s United Civic Organization — UCO. His faith was equally important. He was a lifelong parishioner of St. Joseph Catholic Church and served as a Director, Co-Director and Core Member of the parish’s A.C.T.S. community. (Tribute Archive)
Those details matter.
Because they show that the man wearing the black judicial robe in this portrait never existed separately from the community around him.
He was a Del Rio Ram.
A baseball player.
A Longhorn.
An attorney who came home.
A prosecutor.
A county attorney.
A district judge.
A UCO leader.
A man of faith.
And, according to those who knew him, a judge who believed that dignity did not depend upon which side of the courtroom somebody happened to be standing on.
His obituary remembered Fernandez for his calmness, patience and humility, noting that attorneys, courthouse employees and even criminal defendants could expect to be treated with dignity and respect in his courtroom. (Tribute Archive)
Judge Fernandez had his own memorable description of the work.
He called judicial service:
“toiling in the vineyards of justice.” (Tribute Archive)
There may be no better way to describe his career.
Henry Fernandez died on August 28, 2025, just two days before his 67th birthday. He was 66 years old. His Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at the same Del Rio parish that had been such an important part of his life — St. Joseph Catholic Church. (Tribute Archive)
And his connection to the courthouse continues.
In March 2026, the Val Verde County Commissioners Court agenda included consideration of accepting a metal bench and plaque in loving memory of Judge Enrique “Henry” Fernandez and his service to the 63rd Judicial District Court. (Val Verde County)
So when we look at this portrait, we aren’t simply looking at another name in the succession of Val Verde County judges.
We are looking at a Del Rio boy who grew up playing baseball here, left home to earn his education, and then made the decision that has shaped the lives of so many of the people we have been documenting:
He came back.
And he spent much of the rest of his life serving the place that raised him.
From the baseball fields of Del Rio to the halls of the Val Verde County Courthouse, Judge Enrique “Henry” Fernandez represents another chapter in the long judicial history of our border community.
Today his portrait hangs among those who came before him.
Future generations may walk past it without having known Henry personally.
That is precisely why we preserve these stories.
A courthouse portrait gives us a face.
History gives us the man.
— Del Rio Historical Preservation Project
Historical research compiled from Val Verde County records, Texas appellate court records and the published memorial biography of Judge Enrique “Henry” Fernandez.
