Arthur L. Littleworth, nationally renowned water law attorney, civic leader, published author, and the subject of a feature-length television biography in 2020, died Oct. 18, at his Riverside home in the company of family. He was 98.
Born in Anderson on May 2, 1923, to parents Roy and Rose Littleworth and raised modestly in Los Angeles from age 2, Mr. Littleworth attended Los Angeles public schools and graduated high school in February, 1941, No. 1 in his class, and was the Yale Pacific Coast Regional Scholarship recipient. He joined the Naval reserves at Yale University during WWII, graduating in 1944 and receiving a Bachelor of Arts with honors in three years, then served on the USS Currituck from 1944-46 for the 7th fleet of the US Naval Air Force in the South Pacific theater. He received a Master of Arts from Stanford University in 1947, married Evelyn “Evie” Low that same year, and graduated from Yale Law School with Honors and his LL.B. in 1950.
Hired at Best Best & Krieger in Fall 1950 he was admitted to the California Bar in early 1951. He and Evie had two children, daughter Anne, born in 1952, and son Todd, who is three years younger. His extraordinary legal career was marked, say colleagues, by a low-key approach, remarkable command of the law, and a statesmanlike grace and elegance that served to both captivate and inspire those on both sides of a case. “His reputation preceded him, so people knew they were in the presence of brilliance” said longtime friend and former colleague Terry Bridges.
Littleworth served on the Riverside Unified School District’s Board of Trustees from 1958-72; the last 10 as president. On the morning of Sept. 7, 1965, as he was making his way into a Riverside City Council meeting to represent a client, City Manager John Wentz leaned in to inform him that Lowell Elementary School, a predominately minority school on the city’s Eastside, had been nearly destroyed by fire earlier that morning. With the Watts riots in Los Angeles occurring not much more than three weeks earlier, his immediate concern was that Riverside would become gripped by a similar ordeal.
Starting with a highly charged regularly scheduled school board meeting that same afternoon Mr. Littleworth would be involved in nearly continual community meetings over the following seven days, and would spearhead a mutually agreed upon school busing program over the ensuing 30 days that would enable Riverside to become the first public school district in the United States with more than 20,000 students to achieve school integration without a court order and without resultant community violence. It was a story of national significance. During this entire period Mr. Littleworth would rarely visit his law office at Best Best & Krieger but instead devote himself entirely to the integration efforts. “I saw him sacrifice his practice to save this community” added Bridges in the television documentary.
By the early 1970s Riverside’s downtown business district was in severe decline and Mr. Littleworth, in 1976, would serve as the first president of the Mission Inn Foundation. He and a group of dedicated volunteers would lead the effort to save the iconic yet troubled Mission Inn from demolition, as many in the community felt that the mismanaged, bankrupt and decaying structure would be best served as a parking lot. In 1977 the Inn was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Today, the Mission Inn serves as the financial engine and cultural jewel that powers Riverside’s downtown economy.
The sudden death of wife Evie in 1982 was a jarring blow that was only softened slowly by his strong faith, the loving support of family and close friends, and his work. A cancer survivor himself in the late 1980s, he would make a full recovery and move forward energetically.
Last year also marked his 70th year at Best Best & Krieger, the venerable law firm founded in 1891, and his role there as one of the most preeminent of water law attorneys in the United States. He has litigated some of the largest and most contentious lawsuits in California State history and, in 1987, Littleworth was chosen by the United States Supreme Court to serve as a special master in litigation over the Arkansas River between Kansas and Colorado. He issued two opinions that were universally upheld by the Supreme Court. Since its inception in 1789, only a handful of water law attorneys have ever been asked to serve as a special master by the United States Supreme Court. Littleworth was asked twice.
He worked extensively in water rights adjudications. He represented Rancho California Water District in litigation with the U.S. Justice Department concerning the water rights of the Marine Corps and Camp Pendleton and represented the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District concerning the water rights of the Soboba Band of Mission Indians on the San Jacinto River. He was involved in a general adjudication of the Mojave River system. He also acted as lead counsel for Riverside County defendants in an action involving more than 1,000 parties brought by the downstream Orange County Water District to adjudicate all water rights within the Santa Ana River watershed. Settled in 1969, the litigation assured Riverside its principal source of water that is still in effect today.
“Art will be greatly missed and we extend our condolences to the Littleworth family,” said BB&K Managing Partner Eric Garner. “Art’s impact here was and is enormous. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing and working with him can attest to his unique and amazing qualities.”
A Good Life – Arthur L. Littleworth
Littleworth also represented the State Water Contractors and their 20 million users who receive water from the State Water Project in the Bay-Delta hearings before the State Water Resources Control Board, and in related litigation and extensive statewide settlement negotiations. He was also involved in the Mono Lake litigation, representing local water users in that controversy. He represented the East Bay Municipal Utility District in a major lawsuit challenging the District’s contract with the Bureau of Reclamation to take water from the American River, and environmental litigation challenging that several hundred million dollar project.
In 1995, he and Garner published “California Water” which was recently updated in a third edition and is universally recognized as a seminal work and industry standard. “Art Littleworth is one of those people you just sit with him for a while and you realize there is something really special about this man,” remarked Garner.
Named by city proclamation in 2000 as Riverside’s “Citizen of the Century” Mr. Littleworth has been the recipient of numerous honors and recognitions and has served on a myriad of professional and community boards, panels, commissions and roundtables.
“During my time both as a councilmember and as mayor, the most difficult decisions that were before the city I would call Art and say, ‘Art, can I come to your office and talk?” said former city councilmember and former Mayor Ronald Loveridge. “When Art Littleworth spoke, people listened,” Loveridge added.
An avid traveler, photographer and painter, Mr. Littleworth visited nearly two dozen countries and has documented his travels on film, print and canvas. An endowed scholarship at the University of California at Riverside bears his name.
In January, 2008, tragically, Art Littleworth suffered a severe stroke that compromised his right side and affected his speech. With the steadfast support of wife Peggy, whom he married in 1994, he would work tirelessly on a physical therapy regimen with the same steely determination that had always marked him as a man. “Never have I heard him be angry, or despair, he may have felt all those emotions, but he didn’t show it,” said Peggy. “He was just a wonderful man,” she said, “He took me around the world, showed me glorious places. He was kind and good, and I loved him dearly.”
After years of rehabilitation, he was able to get around capably with the support of a cane and his mind was still remarkably clear and vital and colleagues sought his legal advice until he passed.
In 2014, at age 91, his personal reflections of the school integration effort was published as a book, “No Easy Way.” In 2020 a 2-hour documentary, “A Good Life-Arthur L Littleworth,” premiered on Riverside TV, the city’s in-house production subsidiary.
Dell Roberts, an Eastside activist who worked 38 years for the Riverside Unified School District, called Littleworth’s passing “a great, great loss to our community…. We were really blessed to have a man of his caliber come through,” he said, “And I’m blessed to have known him.”
Preceded in death by his first wife Evie and a sister Rosemary Ciolfi, Littleworth is survived by Peggy, his wife of 27 years; a sister Gwen Mills; daughter Anne (Craig) Taylor; son Todd (Pamela) Littleworth; stepchildren Adam (Melissa) Shaw and Molly (Robert) Martin; grandchildren Brooke (Scott) Williamson, Cameron (Tara) Taylor, and Ian, Robyn and Kelsey Littleworth; step-grandchildren Ellie and Jack Shaw, and Emma, Opal and Arrow Martin; great-grandchildren Barrett and Archer Williamson, and Wyatt Taylor.
Private services will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Riverside.
Contributions are welcome to the Arthur L. Littleworth Scholarship Fund, UC Riverside Foundation, 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521, or to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Submitted by Tim Roche.
