Former Yakima City Councilman Bill Lover was known to be fiscally conservative and never shy about expressing his points of view.
“My husband — as I describe him from his council days — is Mr. No,” his wife, Cheryll Lover, said Friday. “He was always of the opinion: If you didn’t have it, you didn’t spend it.”
“Let’s just say he was the taxpayers’ friend on the council,” added his son, Matthew Lover.
Lover served more than a decade on the council before retiring in December 2017. He’s credited with helping the city acquire state and federal funding for street and infrastructure projects and advocating for budget austerity in the wake of the Great Recession.
He also was considered a voice for the underdog.
Lover died of cancer Thursday evening. He was 79.
His wife, son and former city officials recalled his service and what it meant to them and the community.
“Bill made a difference, a positive difference, for this community and made a contribution that will be long-enduring, and the community can be thankful for his service,” said former City Manager Dick Zais.
A councilman
Lover had a heart for the disadvantaged and wanted to improve services for them, said former state Rep. Norm Johnson, who once served alongside Lover on the council.
Johnson recalled Lover taking him to Camp Hope not long after it opened behind the former Kmart in east Yakima.
The homeless encampment sleeps more the 70 people a night in military tents and provides meals, showers and other services.
“He really believed in what they were doing,” Johnson said. “He believed we needed to help the homeless. Not just keep them in a place that’s safe, but also provide services. He wanted to help the underdog, so to speak.”
Lover was instrumental in helping advance an irrigation project to serve east Yakima, where he’d also been an advocate for affordable housing, Zais said.
“He knew how important it was to secure state and federal funds for projects for water, sewer, streets in neighborhoods,” he said. “He wanted to see more done to improve the infrastructure for housing, particularly for seniors and low-income people. He was a champion for them.”
When the Great Recession hit, Lover teamed with former Yakima County Commissioner Mike Leita to revise the city’s budget.
Facing potentially drastic declines in revenue, the county was combing through its budget at the time and devised a recovery model.
Lover, longtime friends with Leita, brought that model to the city, Zais said.
“Bill had a strong hand in crafting that budget model for the future,” Zais said. “He worked very hard, he was very diligent in his work and attention to detail.”
And he was critical of the work being done on the budget and often scrutinized budget reports.
“He would read those pretty carefully to make sure the funds lined up appropriately,” Zais said.
More to Lover
Lover was a career military man, worked for The Boeing Company and dabbled in art, something maybe two people in Yakima might know about aside from his family, Johnson said.
Lover joined the Marine Corps in 1958, served in Beirut and Vietnam and was a marksman, said Matthew Lover.
“His dad signed him up when he was 17 years old,” Matthew said.
His first deployment came the year he enlisted — the Lebanon Crisis in 1958.
Lover later transferred into the Air Force, where he was an aviation mechanic. He was with the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron out of McChord Air Force Base, where he serviced his favorite aircraft, the F-106 Delta Dart, Matthew said.
In 1974, he participated in William Tell, a worldwide weapons competition where the “Top Gun” award was established. He retired in 1982 as a chief master sergeant.
He was instrumental in getting a downtown street named after Staff Sgt. Jack Pendleton, the city’s only Medal of Honor recipient, Johnson said.
A stretch of East A Street was named after him in 2013.
Lover then worked for Boeing as a quality insurance manager, Matthew said.
Lover spent 10 years commuting to Seattle to work for Boeing. He’d spend weekdays in Seattle and come home on the weekends, Matthew said.
“But Yakima was his home,” he said.
He began serving on the City Council after leaving Boeing.
“He put his heart and soul into the community, so he served his community his whole life,” Matthew said.
Lover also enjoyed sculpting aluminum. He received an art degree from Central Washington University in 1987, Matthew said.
Johnson said not too many people knew that about Lover.
“I tried to get him to show his work and he wouldn’t do it,” Johnson said. “He was quite an artist.”
A loving man
Lover liked helping others, his wife and son said.
He umpired youth sports, women’s fast-pitch softball and Yakima Valley Pepsi Pak baseball.
Each June, he helped with Boys State Washington, a summer leadership program providing youth experience in government.
“We never saw him on Father’s Day because that was the day he started,” Cheryll said.
His love for his community reflected his love for his family, Cheryll said.
Matthew vividly recalls the day his dad took him fishing at the McChord base when he was just a small child.
“That was probably the highlight of my kindergarten year, my dad taking me fishing like that,” he said.
Matthew recalled how his younger brother Marcus — 10 or 11 at the time — would wait up for his dad to get home from Seattle to play cards.
“Then they would play cards until they couldn’t stay up anymore,” Matthew said. “That was their bonding time.”
Wednesday would have marked Bill and Cheryll’s 53rd wedding anniversary.
“He’s a good man, a good husband and an excellent father,” Cheryll said.
They had five children together. Their eldest, John, a 2nd Lt in the Army National Guard, drowned in the Yakima River in 1992.
“I think (my dad’s) greatest accomplishments are his five children,” Matthew said. “I think his biggest heartache was losing John in 1992.”
Lover will be buried next to John at the Terrace Heights Cemetery, Matthew said.
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Bill Lover recalled as a vocal, fiscally conservative and caring Yakima city councilman - Yakima Herald-Republic
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