William Albert Litle

Dr. William Albert Litle of Garden Grove, California, died peacefully at home on March 16, 2018.  He was born on November 25, 1934 and raised in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he grew up with his mother, the late Sara Allison Litle; father, the late William McClelland Litle; sister, Sara Jane Litle McCullough of Washington, Pennsylvania; and brother, James Allison Litle of Durham, North Carolina; He had many other  cherished Washington County relatives, including his late grandparents: Albert Johnston Allison, Sr. and Etta Tucker Allison, William Absalom Litle and Mary McClelland Litle. Dr. Litle was married to Carol Litle of Garden Grove, California. He is also survived by his four children, Karen Litle of Atlanta, Georgia, Linda Godfrey and Robert Litle of Dover, Massachusetts, and Ellen Litle of Sacramento, California.  He was a loving grandfather to Sara, Taylor and Ryan Godfrey; Gregory, John, Michael, and Samuel Litle; and Kayla and Grace Hussey. Also surviving is his first wife, Martha Ludwick Litle, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, the mother of his children.   Dr. Litle graduated from East Washington High School in 1952. He was awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, 1956, Duke University; Master of Science, 1957 and Doctor of Science, 1963, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following his graduate studies, he joined the M.I.T. faculty in 1963 in the School of Civil Engineering. He was considered an expert in structural engineering.  In 1977, Dr. Litle moved to Southern California where he served on the faculty at the School of Engineering at The University of California, Irvine and later at California State University at Fullerton. During this time, he parlayed his passion for United States Postage Stamps into a second career. He was nationally recognized as the “Master Grader” for, and later President of, Professional Stamp Experts where he developed a standardized grading system to account for the wide range in condition and quality across different examples of the same stamp.  He created and served as editor of PSE’s “Stamp Market Quarterly”, a pricing guide for U.S. stamps. He was proud of how this system increased collectors’ focus on the scarcity value of higher quality stamps. His pursuit of excellence was a gift to all, as he engaged his students, his family and his friends in life, and embraced learning, teaching, philately, collecting (bottles, cut glass, three-face glass, Radko ornaments, Yosemite paintings, artwork and carriage clocks), golf, travel, fishing, the arts, Christmas holidays, Disneyland, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Duke basketball. He loved to learn, read, explore, and watch sports.  His generosity with his family included amazing cruise vacations, deep sea fishing trips, epic Colorado white water rafting expeditions, Grand Canyon exploration, iconic Cape Cod vacations and striped bass fishing, and several Hawaiian vacations. His passion for life, sense of humor and intellectual curiosity helped to pave the way for his grandchildren and their lives ahead. A private service will be held in his memory.