Environmentalist Ida Z. Williams Dies
Ida Z. Williams, a longtime Newport Beach resident and environmentalist who fought to preserve coastal areas, died Monday at her home. She was 70.
For about 12 years, Mrs. Williams was a member of Stop Polluting Newport, or SPON, a group that cleaned up areas of Newport Beach and fought commercial development.
Other activists and family members said Mrs. Williams dedicated much of her later life to lobbying government officials in an attempt to halt development and pollution.
“When it came to fighting for our rights, she came forward,” Joyce Williams said of her mother.
Mrs. Williams wrote numerous letters to then-President George Bush, U.S. senators and even the South African consul in causes ranging from saving the environment to ending apartheid, her daughter said.
Originally from New York City, she spent the last two decades in Newport Beach, where she was a member of the Balboa Bay Republican Women’s Federation.
She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Ed, daughter Joyce, son Kenneth, granddaughters Kandal and Dawn and grandson Drew.
Funeral services will be held today at Mount Olive-Harbor Lawn Mortuary and Memorial Park in Costa Mesa.
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