Arthur London died on Sept. 26, three days before his 82nd birthday. He moved to Malibu in 1968 and soon became a passionate activist, working to protect Malibu’s natural environment and rural character.
London met his wife, Lois, in 1972 after a mutual friend brought them together as tennis partners. They attended theater, jazz and cultural events, and traveled the world. The Londons lost their home on Carbon Mesa in the Malibu fire of 1993. He then rented several Malibu properties until finally buying a home high up Las Flores Canyon, where he and his wife lived for the past 13 years.
A professional attorney since graduating from Harvard Law School, London did a great deal of work for Malibu. In the pre-cityhood days, he opposed the California Department of Transportaion’s proposed expansion of Pacific Coast Highway to the current four-lane highway and Los Angeles County’s attempts to impose sewers on Malibu. London actively supported the Malibu cityhood campaigns.
Once Malibu became a city, London’s many volunteer activities included active roles as a member of the Transportation and Natural Resources Study Groups, Single Family Building Criteria Task Force and the General Plan Task Force (Land Use, Conservation, Open Space and Recreation and Safety and Health Sub-committees).
Born in Los Angeles to Russian immigrant parents in 1926, and raised in the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles, London remembered seeing movies in the spectacular movie palaces on Broadway for a quarter and taking the Red Line cable car to Venice Beach. London graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1949 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1952.
London is survived by his wife, Lois; son, Stephen; daughters Hildy and Susan; stepdaughters, Cheryl Yaney and Marina Yaney, and eleven grandchildren.