William Lillian Spark

**William Lillian Spark**, also known as **W. L. Spark** was an American educator and author who wrote several history, law, and civics textbooks that were used in both high schools and universities across the western United States, primarily in California.

## Biography

### Early Life

William Lillian Spark was born on September 16th, 1922 on his family's farm near Sublette, Kansas. His parents were Allan "Al" Spark, Jr. and Eva Spark (neé May). He had a sister named Anna who was ten years older than him - he also lived with his paternal grandparents. Both his parents and grandparents were farmers who had owned a single piece of property for several years. He was of mostly English and Scottish descent, with some French and German on his mother's side.

William was about 13 when his family moved from Kansas during the dust bowl to Fresno, California. During the latter half of his childhood he stayed either at his parents' apartment or a family friend's house when both his working parents had to hold down long shifts. His sister was married in 1936, shortly after arriving in Fresno, to a man from Sacramento. William attended Roosevelt High School near downtown Fresno where he received high marks and was apart of both the track and football teams, as well as an editor on his school's newspaper. He graduated in June 1941. His father implored him to attend college, seeking out loans that would pay for his education.

William ended up attending the University of California in Berkeley, California where he graduated *cum laude* with a degree in history in 1945. He was able to avoid being drafted into WW2 during his college years, instead paying off his college by working at the Port of Oakland. After college he was an assistant teacher at Berkeley High School during the 1945-46 and 1946-47 school years. Afterwards he attended Stanford University where he received his law degree from in 1951.

### Law Career

In 1951 William began working at a San Francisco based law firm; Edwards, Pendleton, & Boris (EP&B). At EP&B he met Helen Lavigne, a litigator for the firm who had also graduated from Stanford as one of nine women in her class. The two were married on Santa Catalina island on May 30, 1953. The two moved in together at a condominium located at 276 12th Ave, not far from the EP&B law offices in downtown San Francisco.

William worked at EP&B until 1959, at which point he founded Spark & Schmitt, a civil litigation firm, with his business partner Alfred Schmitt. S&S had a total of 66 employees by 1965. The firm had clients from across the Bay Area, causing them to have both a San Francisco and Livermore branch. S&S was acquired by EP&B in December 1974, for a large amount of money undisclosed by S&S. William continued to work within EP&B until 1978.

### Authorships

In 1980 William published *Modern American Civics*, a high school level history textbook which was sold to a handful of school districts in NorCal. The success of his book propelled William to earn a Doctorate of Law from Stanford University in 1986. He went on to write several college and high school level law and civics/history textbooks, the most successful of which included *Foundations of Civil Law*, *American Political Economy*, and *Basics of Business Law*.

He continued to write until the publication of *Legal Research and Organization* in 1991, after which he permanently retired from writing and teaching. He also served several teaching positions, including at the University of San Francisco (USF) and at his alma mater, UC Berkeley.

### Later Life and Death

After retiring in 1992 at the age of 70 William moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. William would be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of 78 in May of 2000. His health declined slowly until he would pass away after falling down the stairs of his Scottsdale home on November 9th, 2004 at the age of 82. Helen Spark would outlive him, dying in 2011 at the age of 87.

## Family

William and his wife Helen were married in 1953 and would stay married until his death. Together they had two children which included fraternal twins born in 1955 - Michael Allan Spark and Barbara Ann Spark. They also had a second son Richard Oliver Spark (1961-), born years later.

## Bibliography

* *Modern American Civics* (1980)
* *American Law for the People* (1983)
* *American Political Economy* (1983)
* *Foundations of Civil Law* (1985)
* *Basics of Business Law* (1986)
* *History of American Legal Policy* (1988)
* *Legal Research and Organization* (1991)
* *American Civics Education* (2005); published posthumously