William Orick (Bill) Nighswonger, a fixture in the Montebello community who served for 21 years on the City Council, has died at age 91.
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.
‘”The first batch of cookies arrived in Japan along with a letter thanking him for his service,” Nighswonger said. “Bill wrote back, and over the next two years there was regular correspondence between the two, which led to Bill’s romantic interest in Kathy.”
Upon Nighswonger’s honorable discharge in 1954, he returned to Montebello, and began dating her. They were married shortly after her graduation from Whittier College in 1957.
Nighswonger then became involved with his father-in-law’s business, Homer R. Heacock Real Estate in Montebello where they helped clients purchase and sell homes and industrial properties, along with property management services in and around the Montebello area.
Nighswonger and Darrell Heacock became partners in the business after Homer Heacock’s death, and he continued to work until recent years when his health prevented him from doing so.
Nighswonger was elected to the Montebello City Council in 1968 with the slogan “the longest name on the ballot, according to his son.
During his time on the council, the Montebello Town Center, now called Shops of Montebello was developed, the Quiet Cannn was remodeled and the Armenian Genocide Monument was dedicated, Nighswonger said in a Thursday telephone interview.
Nighswonger also had a love for fishing and the outdoors instilled in him by his father, and which he has passed down to his children, as well as his grandchildren, his son wrote.
He was a member of the Southern California Sporters, a deep-sea fishing club, and also enjoyed trout fishing in the high Sierras, as well as fly-fishing on the San Juan River in New Mexico, Richard Nighswonger wrote.
Nighswonger is survived by his sons, Keith and his wife, Laura, of La Habra, and Richard and his wife, Tish of Seal Beach; brother-in-law Darrell Heacock and his wife Sylvia of Montebello; five grandchildren; two nephews and four nieces.
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