CERRITOS (CNS) - Cerritos City Councilman Jim Edwards has died, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed today.
Edwards died of cancer over the weekend, friends and colleagues told The Orange County Register. He was 75.
Edwards was first elected to the City Council in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2013, but returned to the council in 2015 and was re-elected in March, topping the field of nine candidates in the race for three seats.
Edwards was mayor of Cerritos from 2008-09 and 2012-13.
Edwards lived in Cerritos for more than 43 years and taught and coached at the city's Gahr High School for more than 30 years. He was also an administrator with the ABC Unified School District, which includes Cerritos.
Edwards was a member of the Cerritos Parks and Recreation Commission from 1988-97 and 2003-05, and it Community Safety Committee from 1997-2003.
Edwards was a member of the Board of Directors for the Fisher House of Southern California at the Long Beach VA Hospital at the time of his death.
Edwards was also a volunteer photographer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, with assignments including photographing fires, rescues, training events, special events and graduation ceremonies.
Edwards is survived by his wife of 52 years, Connie, a son and daughter, six grandchildren and one great-grandson.
`It has been a difficult day for me and for the city,” Cerritos Mayor Pro Tem Chuong Vo told The Register.
“The city and the council are in mourning for a man who worked in the service of his community his whole life as a teacher and a councilman.”