Stephen Little
CEO and Founder
Stephen Little is the CEO of Claropool and Dorothy Carter LLC but most importantly a father and a swimmer and a benefactor to the community of swimming.
Stephen’s story began when he enlisted in the United States Army at 17 years old. At 18, Stephen had a penchant for foreign languages; enrolled at DLIFLC in Monterey, CA. and within a year, Stephen earned his AA degree in foreign language and returned to Active Duty in the United States Army. Stephen served in the ARMY for several years resigning his commission in 1997.
Stephen was accepted at USC in the MS Org. Chem program. Having completed his graduate degree in Chemistry at USC, the educational journey was not over. Stephen pursued and obtained his J.D. from ASU Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. This is when Stephen decided to practice Entrepreneurship.
Stephen founded, managed, and operated several companies over the past 20 years including but not limited to a pool construction firm Hire Standards Pool Construction, Mr. Handyman, WaterWise, stevethepoolman.com, and finally Claropool. The common theme is now and always was the connection to the pool, water, and swimming.
His daughter, Briana, was born in 2004.
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His son, Clayton, was born in 2007.
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Both kids came up through the ranks of age group swimming and attained personal successes in the pool as swimmers.
Stephen’s swimming journey and love for the water came when he was an age group swimmer; in those days called a red/white/blue swimmer. Stephen continues swimming as an adult and since the year 2000 has completed the English Channel swim twice, made an unsuccessful attempt at the Catalina Channel, Swam the Alcatraz swim a dozen times and other notable swims such as the Swim for your Life 10k in Georgia and Luck’s Lake Swim in Florida. Stephen continues to train and swim at home in the Coachella Valley, CA.
In 2012 Stephen launched the Swim to Win Initiative which over the past decade has funded swimming lessons for more than 55,000 children. Stephen has personally taught thousands of kids how to swim and in 2020 purchased the local 30-year-old swim school.
Today Stephen continues to be a driving force in the swimming pool maintenance and repair industry creating new programs and new initiatives to further drowning prevention. Stephen is a lifetime member of the Loma Linda Children’s Hospital Foundation, a Trustee to USA Swimming, and continues to personally fund drowning education programs across the State of California while running his businesses.
pool company palm desert
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