Henry F. Lippitt II; Expert on Natural Gas Policy

Henry F. Lippitt II, executive secretary of the California Gas Producers Assn. for a quarter of a century and a leading expert in natural gas regulation, has died. He was 79.

Lippitt died Wednesday in Los Angeles, his family announced Thursday.

He also served as the longtime editor of Reports on Western Natural Gas Developments, which became known as the Lippitt Reports.

Lippitt was instrumental in passage of the California Natural Gas Policy Act in 1983 and also worked on other major legislation, including the state’s natural gas cooperative bill and elimination of a state gas gathering charge.

In 1983 he earned the Glenn C. Ferguson Award given by the California Independent Petroleum Assn. for contributions to the industry’s future.

A native of Providence, R.I., Lippitt grew up in Santa Barbara and San Diego and was educated at San Diego State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Law School. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Naval Reserve assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance.

After the war, he worked briefly as a contracting officer with the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission in New York and then joined a New York law firm. As a lawyer, he concentrated on natural gas regulatory problems, frequently appearing before what is now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.

Lippitt returned to California in 1957 as counsel to the Southern California Gas Co.

In 1961 he helped Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum form the California Gas Producers Assn. and served as its executive secretary until his retirement in 1989.

Lippitt organized the California Conference of Public Utility Counsel, served as director of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Seaboard Oil and Gas Co., was a trustee of the Francis Parker School in San Diego and the Cate School in Santa Barbara, and was a director and treasurer of the Historical Society of Southern California.

He is survived by his wife of 29 years, the former Ruth Sonja Staub; a sister and two brothers, and 11 nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is scheduled at 3 p.m. Monday at the Church of the Hills, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills.