Gary Little

Gary Little
Born	c. 1939
Died	August 18, 1988 (aged 48–49) Seattle, Washington, United States
Cause of death	suicide
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University, University of Washington School of Law
Occupation	judge, attorney
Years active	1960s–1988

Gary Little (c. 1939 – August 18, 1988) was an American judge from Seattle, Washington who committed suicide in 1988 after allegations he had sexual contact with underage boys. The public allegations against Little, and his subsequent suicide, followed a decade of rumors that had circulated about him, including several media exposes that had been quashed before publication, and a state investigation of Little which had been sealed. The inability, or unwillingness, of members of Seattle's social and political elite to hold Little, a well-liked jurist with influential friends, to account generated controversy.

Little was born into humble circumstances in Seattle, the son of truck driver Sterling Little, who died in August 1947 after hanging himself in a jail cell in the King County Courthouse where he was being held on a burglary charge. Gary Little's widowed mother worked as a stenographer while he and his sister were raised by a grandmother. Little, described as a "driven and able" student, graduated from Lincoln High School and earned a scholarship to Harvard University.

Gary Little ultimately graduated from Harvard and went on to earn a juris doctor from the University of Washington School of Law. While a student at the University of Washington, he "immersed himself in Democratic politics" and began to develop a circle of influential friends.

Beginning in the 1960s Little worked as an Assistant Attorney-General assigned to the University of Washington. During this time he also served as a volunteer counselor in the Seattle juvenile court and, from 1968 to 1972, as a part-time teacher at the prestigious Lakeside School. He subsequently was retained as general counsel for the Seattle School District, and was later credited with engineering the district's "sweeping desegregation program".

Little was elected to the King County, Washington Superior Court in 1980.

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