Robert Clifton; Retired Superior Court Judge

Retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Clifton, a resident of Thousand Oaks, died Saturday morning. He was 95.

Born Nov. 1, 1903, in Rochester, Ind., he was a graduate of the Detroit School of Law.

Clifton moved to Southern California at the height of the Depression and worked odd jobs as a milkman and an assistant movie cameraman. He eventually became involved in politics, and took a position as legal counsel to Gov. Culbert Olson in the late 1930s.

In 1943, Olson appointed Clifton to a Municipal Court judgeship. He was appointed by Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown to a Superior Court post in the early 1960s.

Clifton presided over “drunk court” and was known for some of his then-unconventional sentencing for public drunkenness, said his son, Robert Clifton of Bellingham, Wash.

The elder Clifton might sentence a two- or three-time offender to a long sentence, but offer a suspension if the offender attended Alcoholics Anonymous, his son said.

“He was not a moralist. He didn’t preach,” his son said. “He was the kind of guy who cared about underdogs.”

After retiring in the late 1960s, Clifton and his wife, Florence “Susie” Clifton, joined the Peace Corps, working in Micronesia and later in Liberia.

In addition to his son and wife, Clifton is survived by daughters Carol Cady of Laguna Hills, Susan Antriasian of Thousand Oaks and Helen Shoop of Richmond; son Tom Clifton of Oakland; 16 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be private. Arrangements are being handled by Pierce Bros. Griffin Mortuary, Thousand Oaks.