Charles E. Little (1) (1931–2014)

[excerpted from North Carolina State University website]
Charles E. Little, a native Californian, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1955, and served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Although he began his career as an advertising executive in New York City, Little decided in his mid-thirties to resign from advertising to become a full-time environmental activist, author, journalist, and policy analyst. Since then he has helped pass both federal and state legislation on open space, parks, and agricultural land preservation. He has also held several research and management positions in non-profit organizations and government agencies. These include: executive director of the Open Space Institute in New York, senior associate at the Conservation Foundation in Washington D.C., and head of natural resources policy at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. In 1978, Little established and became president of the American Land Forum in order to develop policy on land conservation. Little has written a number of books and magazine articles that have led to numerous changes in conservation policy, which include better approaches to cooperative planning for landscape areas, as well as national legislation for farmland protection. Little currently resides in Kensington, Maryland with his wife, Ila Dawson Little, professor of English literature.