Ex-Redondo Councilman Dies

Former Redondo Beach Councilman Ray Amys, a staunch advocate of retaining public access to the King Harbor waterfront, has died of a heart attack.

Amys, 66, was stricken while shopping Saturday morning at a produce stand near Torrance Airport.

Amys was a councilman from 1981 to 1985, representing District 2, which includes King Harbor. He was instrumental in getting the fishing promenade built that connected the straight- and horseshoe-shaped sections of the Redondo Beach Pier. (The promenade was destroyed by wind-swept waves on April 30.) Amys also worked to establish the police substation on the pier and to limit building heights and density in the harbor, City Treasurer Alice DeLong said.

DeLong said Amys “was really kind of a loner (on the City Council). It was a 4-to-1 vote usually.” He lost a reelection bid to Councilwoman Kay Horrell in 1985.

Amys retired more than 20 years ago after his back was seriously injured in a car accident. He had owned a muffler shop in Minnesota, worked as a salesman and helped to organize programs for the blind in Wisconsin and Iowa. He moved to California in 1961 and to Redondo Beach in 1975.

Amys’ friend, Donnalee Price, who works in the city clerk’s office, said Amys “got interested in the Redondo Beach political scene (because) he was a fisherman, and they were trying to squeeze the fishermen out.”

His face soon became familiar at City Hall as he researched business leases in King Harbor and confronted the City Council regarding commercial development at the harbor.

“Everybody who knew him--really knew him--loved him,” Price said. “ . . . He had his adversaries, because he was controversial, but that’s the way he played it. He wanted to make people think.”

Price said that Amys, who moved to Torrance two years ago but continued to fish at the pier, had wanted to be involved in rebuilding the pier, which was damaged by waves and a fire this year.

Price suggested that anyone wanting to make a memorial in his name should send a contribution to the Pier Reconstruction Fund, Redondo Beach City Hall, P.O. Box 270, Redondo Beach, Calif. 90277; Attn: Harbor Department.

A memorial service was held Wednesday for Amys, whose body was cremated.

Amys, who was divorced, is survived by two children, Penni Hansen of Tucson, Ariz., and Brian of Aurora, Colo.; three sisters, Dorothy Seeley of Milwaukee and Mary Archambeault and Josephine Almstead, both of Superior, Wis., and five grandchildren.