John Wesley Shenk (1875–1959) was a city attorney in Los Angeles, California, a Superior Court judge and a member of the California Supreme Court.
Shenk was born on February 7, 1875, in Shelburne, Vermont, the son of John Wesley Shenk of Cobbleskill, New York, who was a Methodist minister (died July 1922), and Susannah C. Brooks (died April 1929). He had three brothers, William W., Edmund S. and Adolphus B., and two sisters, Carrie M. (Wilson) and Susannah C. (McRae). He was educated in Shelbourne and in Omaha, Nebraska, public schools and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a law degree from the University of Michigan, in 1903, after which he passed an oral examination for the bar before the California Supreme Court. He later received honorary doctor of laws degrees from both universities and from the University of Southern California.
He was married to Lena R. Custer in 1907. They had two sons, Samuel Custer and John Wesley Jr.
He was a Shriner and Knight Templar and a member of Lodge No. 99, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, Sons of the Revolution, Beta Theta Pi college fraternity and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles and the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. He was master of South Pasadena Masonic Lodge No. 367 and was a member of the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine.