Ralph M. Brody (1912-1981) is credited with playing an instrumental role in securing legislative and then voter approval of California’s State Water Project, the nation’s largest state-financed water project ever built. He later went on to serve as chief counsel and manager for Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest farm water district.

Brody served as the Bureau of Reclamation’s assistant regional counsel in Sacramento from 1944 to 1952 and was involved in negotiating some of the original water contracts for the federal Central Valley Project, portions of which were then still under construction.

After leaving Reclamation, Brody went into private practice specializing in water and power law while also serving as counsel to the California Legislature’s Joint Committee on Water Problems. Planning was under way on what would become the State Water Project, and when Edmund G. “Pat” Brown was elected governor in 1958, he asked Brody to become his special counsel on water issues and also appointed him chief deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources.

Brody guided Brown’s legislation to pursue construction of the State Water Project through the California Legislature and then traveled up and down California seeking public support. California voters authorized the project in November 1960.

After Brody left the governor’s staff Brown appointed him to the California Water Commission, where he served as chair until 1966 as Brown was leaving office.

In 1961 Brody was hired as chief counsel and manager for Westlands Water District, a major Central Valley Project contractor on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. At Westlands he played a key role in negotiating the district’s first CVP contract. He retired from Westlands in 1977.

Updated December 2025.