Hugh W. Darling, 84, Lawyer, Former Mayor of Beverly Hills

Hugh W. Darling, 84, former mayor of Beverly Hills and president of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., died Sunday at St. John’s Hospital after a brief illness, his law partner, Matthew S. Rae Jr., announced Monday.

Born in Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 4, 1901, Darling studied at the University of California at Berkeley and received his degree from the USC School of Law.

Admitted to the bar in 1928, he formed the law firm of Guthrie & Darling with Stanley W. Guthrie, and 20 years later added law classmate Edward S. Shattuck to form Guthrie, Darling & Shattuck, predecessor of the present Los Angeles firm of Darling, Hall & Rae.

Darling was president of Los Angeles’ honorary legal society, the Chancery Club, in 1957-58 and a member of the legal organization’s Order of the Coif and Phi Delta Phi. He was a member of the State Bar Board of Governors in 1965-68 and a bar vice president in 1967-68.

A former vice mayor, Darling was elected mayor of Beverly Hills in 1960.

Active in the practice of law from 1928 until shortly before his death, Darling served as attorney, general counsel and a director of Western Airlines Inc.

“Attorneys in active practice provide the skilled legal advice and advocacy without which organized society could not function in this giddy and swift age,” Darling wrote during his presidency of the Bar Assn. in 1959.

He leaves his wife, Hazel.

Memorial services are scheduled Thursday at noon in All Saints Episcopal Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills.