Bob Phillips, former general manager of the LADWP, has died at the age of 91. Phillips was remembered in the Los Angeles Times obituaries as the chief engineer who got DWP through the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s.bob_phillips.jpg

Phillips did deal with a critical fuel shortage by implementing a voluntary rationing plan. Customers who failed to conserve were fined. Phillips plan was later used nationwide.

Bob Phillips headed the aqueduct division from 1961 to 1967, known in the Owens Valley. He worked as chief waterworks engineer and deputy general manager from 1967 to 1972.

Phillips was described as an amateur astronomer who made his own telescopes. He also taught engineering at UCLA.

After his wife Janie died in 2003, Phillips moved to the Owens Valley where he had first worked for the DWP as a part-time surveyor while in college. Services for Bob Phillips were held at the Methodist Church in Independence on Wednesday.

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