(Photo provided by Ana Petrova.)

A Memorial Service for Chris Williams, who passed away last week, will be held Sunday, October 18, 4 pm at the First Lutheran Church of Venice, 815 Venice Blvd, 90291.

He was one of the first board members of the Venice Neighborhood Council and was one of the original members of the LAPD Community Police Advisory board. He also planned and did all the Thanksgiving lunches for the policemen at the police station.

Remembrances …

(All remembrances will be printed. Rick Feibuschs’ remembrance was printed last week.)

Rick Selan
I thank Rick for his sharing below the Chris Williams we all knew and cared for. I thank Reta for printing this.

I have known Chris for well over 30 years. He was my neighbor; he was my friend; he was the father of Kyle whom i tutored for years;
he truly loved Grass Roots Venice ( now Venice Neighborhood Counsel, and he truly loved his wife Janet.

Our relation was special as we remained close friends although Chris’s political views were far right of my political views.

We could passionately argue for hours regarding national and Venice politics but when the discussion was finished, our friendship
always remained strong.

There is no measure for the caring , sharing , passion and love Chris had for our police and our fire fighters and he put in an exceptional amount of time organizing benefits for those who protected us. Chris always made sure Pacific Division Police had a great Thanksgiving dinner each Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving.

While Chris was to the right and I was to the left, we shared a special feeling for education and our schools and we both preached,
“Kids First.”

This Thanksgiving the community needs to pitch in to provide Pacific Division Police a great meal and at the same time honor Chris’s
passion for giving and sharing.

Ana Petrova
Chris Williams passing saddens me deeply, it just happened so fast! Pancreatic cancer goes that way, just a few months and he was gone.

Chris has been a good friend for over 20 years. I met him at a community meeting dealing with quality of life issues in our neighborhood. He was so helpful and he had so much knowledge about Venice it’s history and current events, he loved living here. We shared this love and were interested in making our neighborhood a safer, cleaner place to live. We would sit next to each other at various community meetings and our friendship grew. We were both active with our L.A.P.D. Pacific Division and are members of the Community Police Advisory Board.

I just tried to call Janet at their home phone number and Chris’ voice is still on the recorder, tears came to my eyes. Expecting him to pick up as he often screened his calls but instead I had to hang up to compose myself. He was only 62 and had such great future plans for he and his wife’s retirement.

Chris and I attended our Police Advisory Board meetings together for many many years. Most of the time I would drive and would be calling him those Wednesday mornings to remind him that I would pick him up at 6:30 and that we would go and have dinner after at Paco’s Taco. He loved that restaurant and we would sit chat and share our lives plans and dreams sometimes we laughed and other times we cried. Long after our meal was finished we still sat and talked. We had the kind of friendship where we could talk about anything and enjoy each others company.

During his illness I would call him just to chat, hoping to make him laugh or just to take his mind off his pain even for a few minutes. I knew the end was near when he could no longer talk on the phone and all I could do was hope that his passing was soon so he could be free. We are now in pain and his pain is over, rest in peace my friend.

Barbara Gibson
Yes, thank you for your keeping us informed with the update.
I too will miss Chris. He was very knowledgeable about so many things and really cared about Venice, our neighborhoods and our police. I was proud to serve with him on the first neighborhood council in Venice and to be his friend. He will be missed and my prayers are for his wife Janet and son Kyle.