Longtime Montebello councilman Nighswonger dies at 91 – Whittier Daily News

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William Orick (Bill) Nighswonger,  a fixture in the Montebello community who served for 21 years on the City Council, has died at age 91.

Former Montebello Councilman Williams Orick (Bill) Nighswonger has died. (Courtesy Richard Nighswonger)

Services are being arranged by Risher Mortuary of Montebello and for information regarding services visit www.RisherMortuary.com.

“He was fun loving,” Darrell Heacock, his brother-in-law and business partner for more than 60 years said of Nighswonger, who died April 23.

“He was very involved in the Rotary Club — he was there for over 50 years,” Heacock said. “He was mayor four times. He really enjoyed his time on the City Council. He was really into fishing.”

Steve Simonian, a Montebello police officer for 31 years, including 10 years as police chief, described Nighswonger as a “fixture” in the community.

“He was a good guy married to a good lady and together they were a great couple,’  he said, referring to his wife,  Katheryne.

‘They were like the Reagan family,” he said. “He was salt of the earth and had a great sense of humor. He loved to play pranks.”

Simonian said Nighswonger also was frugal, which was the one place they disagreed.

“He was very tight-fisted with the city’s money but he voted for all the right things for all the right reasons except for pay raises,” Simonian said.

Simonian said in his later life as a city manager and councilman in other cities, he better understood the wisdom in holding back.

As a councilman, he always “made sure that Montebello was always different from Pico Rivera and East Los Angeles,” Simonian said. “The roads were paved and sidewalks were repaired.”

Nighswonger was born on Oct. 21, 1930 in Lincoln Hospital in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles to Orick Emmanuel (Babe) and Eva Marian Nighswonger.

The family moved to Montebello in 1944 and he  graduated from Montebello High School in 1948.

He attended East Los Angeles College, where he earned his associate arts degree in 1950.

Nighswonger then enlisted in the Air Force in 1950, and served in the medical corps, including time in Japan.

He met his wife through a service project entailing sending cookies to those serving in the military overseas, according to Nighswonger’s  son, Richard, in an emailed obituary.

His wife’s mother, Neva Heacock, had known Nighswonger’s family, and suggested him as the recipient of the cookies, Nighswonger wrote.

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