"Waste moved to Berkeley originally to attend the University of California and he continued to make his home there for the rest of his life. Through the years he lived in a number of different homes in different parts of the city. His last home was 1172 Spruce Street. The original family home, built in 1887 at 2222 Durant Avenue, was still standing as late as 1965 and may be there even now.

Through the years, Waste was a regular commuter between Berkeley and San Francisco. It was a common sight to see him on either the red electric cars of the Southern Pacific or the yellow ones of the Key Route, both lines connecting at the Bay's edge in Oakland with ferry boats which carried the passenger across the Bay, until the trains started using the new Bay Bridge in 1938. He generally sat alone or by someone he apparently did not know. As a rule he did no work on the train or ferry, although his large, brown, leather briefcase was always along. He often read the morning paper going to San Francisco. When not so doing, he sat with his head high as if reflecting or taking in the view through the car window. On the ferries he often, if not always, rode in the lower deck, the smoker, although he never smoked. Here too he was generally by himself. The genteel passengers often chose the upper cabins, sun-decks, or restaurant for privacy, disdaining the steerage-like lower deck with its plainly-clad workmen, baggage wagons, card games, etc.

Waste frequently carried work home in a brief-case. His left shoulder was slightly lower than his right, as a result of a street car collision in 1894 (see below) There was an illusion as he carried his briefcase with his left hand that it was heavier than it in fact was. He once remarked that only by doing his "home-work" regularly could he keep the court calendar reasonably clear. A colleague remarked that Waste wrote more than his share of death~sentence reviews in order to spare his associates from the unpleasant judicial duty of affirming such decisions.

Waste was an average sized man-five feet, nine or ten inches tall, weighing some one hundred and sixty pounds or so. His hair was dark brown and eyes blue. While on the lean side, rather than fleshy, he filled out in his physical proportions through middle life. During his last years he became noticeably thin, and as his hair, and particularly his closely cropped mustache whitened, he took on a frail appearance. Waste's lips had a way of setting, when he was relaxed, that suggested reserve and diffidence to the point of disdain. This was paradoxical as these traits seemed wholly absent when he was in action, whether speaking, presiding, or mixing in social intercourse. One would suspect he was quite unconscious of the impression people might gather from the unconscious pinching of his lips.

On one occasion in 1934, Waste was driving his automobile on Spruce Street in Berkeley when he failed to notice a grammar school traffic patrol sign and drove through without stopping. One of the patrol boys noted the "4W4" license number, recognized the driver, and reported to the school principal that the violator was the Chief Justice of California. The principal contacted Waste, at whose request the entire school traffic patrol was assembled. Waste then made an apology, spoke to them briefly on the sanctity of law (including "minor" traffic violations), commended them on their vigilance, and observed that no man, not even the Chief Justice, was above the law.

On Constitution Day (September 17), 1937, Waste celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in Berkeley by putting in a full day of work in Court in San Francisco.

While there was about Waste's personality an air of friendliness and kindliness, there was also a suggestion of the aristocratic. One suspected that he was selective to the point of aversion in entertaining many of the thoughts which occupy the minds of the rank and file of mankind. One could properly classify him with the cultured and refined

Waste had a general interest in higher education and did much to promote and advance the cause of educational institutions. He was a member of the board of trustees of both the College of Pacific and the Pacific School of Religion. The University of Southern California awarded him an honorary doctor's degree. He was the first recipient in 1929 of Berkeley's biennial Benjamin Ide Wheeler Award, granted to him for "unpaid conscientious service in civic affairs." As a young assemblyman in 1904, he had sponsored a bill to provide the first permanent building for the University of California, California Hall. Concerts on the University of California Campanile chimes in 1943 were in his memory.

Waste's pride in the University of California and appreciation of what it had done for him was marked. One evidence thereof was his collection of pictures representing student and university life back to the founding of the University in 1869. These he had made into slides which he showed on a screen. Accompanying their showing was his narration, replete with a great deal of university and community history. This proved interesting to the community generally, and for a number of years he showed them frequently. Announcements that he was showing these pictures always drew a crowd and many were so interested that they saw them several times. While people enjoyed seeing the pictures and the story they told, they also enjoyed watching Waste, a man then universally accepted as one at the very top of his profession. This fact, coupled with his engaging personality, congenial disposition, and facility of expression, made these highly pleasant occasions. Among his pictures was one of the first freshman class at the opening of the University in 1869. They graduated in 1873 and were the first class to take the full four year course at the University. In his address to these graduates President Daniel C. Gilman said in part: "You are twelve in number: be jurors, sworn to declare the truth as you find it; be apostles, bearing everywhere the Master's lessons." This group became known in the history of the University as the "Twelve Apostles". Among them was James H. Budd, later Governor of California. If one remembered nothing else, one was sure to remember this picture and Waste's comments on it."