Obituaries : Ray Russum, Ad Salesman, Ventura Activist, Dies at 62 : Community: City Council watchdog and ‘tremendous salesperson’ retained respect of those on both sides of issues.

Ray Russum, an advertising salesman who retired in Ventura and became a gadfly to the City Council, has died at the age of 62.

Russum, who was born and reared in North Hollywood, died of pancreatic cancer Friday in Hollywood.

Russum worked as a real estate agent and advertising salesman for local publications and television, according to one of his four daughters, Teri Russum.

“He was probably the most tremendous salesperson you would have ever met,” she said. “That was his thing, whether he was selling ideas or real estate.”

Russum originally made a name for himself by appearing in numerous “Little Rascals” films beginning at age 3, she said. She said she was not sure which character he played.

But it was in community activism that Russum made his mark locally. Current and former members of the Ventura City Council remembered Russum as an ever-watchful citizen-activist who was never shy about speaking his mind.

In early 1990, Russum rounded up dozens of his neighbors in the Ventura Keys to protest an assessment district that would have forced residents to pay to dredge the waterways throughout the upscale neighborhood.

“The mayor has called us freeloaders,” he said in a 1990 Times interview. “(But) we really have the highest property taxes in the city of Ventura.”

The self-appointed “California Crusader General” funded his own weekly television show that lambasted members of the Ventura City Council each Monday before its meetings.

Relentless in his quest to lessen government interference in the lives of its people, Russum often used puppets and ventriloquists’ dolls on his show to mimic council members speaking among themselves.

“He wrote, produced and directed the whole thing,” his daughter said. “It was all right off the cuff. He was probably the most creative person I’ve known in my life.”

The often sharp ridicule left no hard feelings among some city leaders, however.

“He was a council critic, but he always did it in a way that made sense,” Councilman Jim Monahan said. “I’ve always had the greatest amount of respect for Ray Russum.

“He called me on a regular basis and always let me know whether he approved or disapproved” of council actions, Monahan said.

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Neighbors remember Russum as a leader who never failed to muster local interest in a government issue that affected him or his friends.

“He was a fighter, and he was a very sincere fighter,” said Paul Masi, a friend of seven years. “You knew where he stood all the time.”

Masi credits Russum with getting the city to reconsider its assessment district on Ventura Keys residents in 1990.

“He’s the guy that found out about it,” Masi said. “We fought it and we beat the City Council.”

Others agreed.

“It’s all coming unglued,” former Ventura Vice Mayor Donald Villanueva said at the time. “Russum has triggered a wave of panic.”

A tentative compromise on the assessment district is in the works now, Councilman Gary Tuttle said.

A 1 p.m. memorial service for Russum is scheduled today at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills.