Feb 13, 1943 - Jan 25, 2019

William “Bill” Alexander, who served as Rancho Cucamonga mayor and councilman for 26 years after helping to create the city, died at the age of 75 on Friday night, Jan. 25.

Alexander died at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center at 9:30 p.m. on Friday due to complications during a surgery on his abdomen, family members said. He is survived by three sons, one daughter, seven granddaughters, two great-grandsons  and one great-granddaughter.

Alexander was elected to the Rancho Cucamonga City Council in 1988. He was elected as mayor in 1994 and went on to serve for 12 years before departing in 2006 when he lost a close race to a local physician, Don Kurth. After a four-year break, Alexander returned in 2010 as a councilman for two terms.

He retired from his position in December at 75 years old, announcing his retirement in August, opting not to run for another term after a district reshuffling.

His life as a public servant began when he was hired as a fireman and became a captain and arson investigator for the city of Ontario, where he had served for 30 years. Alexander went on to serve on the Foothill Fire Protection Board for 11 years.

“Dad never met a stranger and always saw the good in everyone he met,” his son, Jeffrey Alexander wrote on Facebook shortly after his father’s death. “It is beyond words to even try to express the loss we are experiencing right now.”

Within hours of writing the post, hundreds of people left comments under Jeffrey Alexander’s post, offering condolences and memories of their interactions with Bill Alexander.

Local leaders praised Alexander on Saturday.

“I’m deeply saddened to hear of Bill’s passing. It was an honor to have served our community together for over three decades. His many contributions to the City of Rancho Cucamonga will remain an enduring legacy. My condolences to his family and they will be in my thoughts and prayers,” said Rancho Cucamonga Mayor L. Dennis Michael in a statement.


Councilman Sam Spagnolo, also released a statement: “I have known Bill for many years going back to our fire service days.  Losing someone with that history is always difficult.  My thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

“Bill served the City of Rancho Cucamonga for many years with dedication and commitment. He truly loved this city and he will be deeply missed.” said Mayor Pro Tem Lynne B. Kennedy.

“It is with deep regret that I heard of the passing of Bill Alexander,” wrote State Assemblyman James C. Ramos, whose district includes Rancho Cucamonga. “Many knew him as a dutiful public servant to the City of Rancho Cucamonga as Mayor and Councilmember, a firefighter, friend, and importantly, a family man. He will be missed.”

During his term as mayor, Alexander oversaw serious development projects in the city, including the construction of Victoria Gardens in 2004, a large open-air mall that draws crowds from across the region. Alexander advocated for several housing development projects during his last term as mayor, at times to the ire of many residents. Detractors labeled the moves as signs of “over-development” and one too many “breaks to developers.”

Amid the rapid pre-recession development, not just in Rancho Cucamonga but across the Inland Empire, Alexander was aware of the dilemmas cities would face.

As the push for more homes, offices and retail centers grew ever-stronger, cities would have to make hard choices between approving revenue-enhancing development and maintaining open portions of land, Alexander said in 2004.

“The city has maintained growth in a very good way,” Alexander said in a 2006 campaign debate, addressing the concerns.

Alexander’s family said he also placed a lot of emphasis on establishing community areas throughout the city, which has more than 30 community parks and sports facilities.

Though his stance on growth may have been controversial among some residents, there are few that saw the city as intimately as Alexander.

Alexander, along with his family, moved to the area in 1969, long before any major developments. At the time, present-day Rancho Cucamonga was a set of three unincorporated agricultural towns: Alta Loma, Etiwanda and Cucamonga.

Orange and lemon groves dominated the landscape. Ranchers rode their horses through open grassy fields. Herds of sheep were also common, said Jeffrey Alexander, who fondly recalled road delays while driving to school, as sheep would cross through traffic.

Surrounding cities looked at the open space as a chance at development and attempted to annex the towns. In response, Alexander joined a movement to preserve their communities. The movement and its cause culminated into the 1977 incorporation of Alta Loma, Etiwanda and Cucamonga into its own city. Alexander was a part of the meetings where residents hammered out the name of their new city: Rancho Cucamonga, an attempt to preserve the Spanish history of ranches in the area, and to honor the indigenous Kukamongan people who had inhabited the land before any of them.

The city would undergo immense change. Alexander, who remained a resident of the city until his death, was there for all of it. Some changes were in his hands, while some were not. Between 1980 and 2000, the population nearly tripled from about 50,000 to nearly 130,000, according to Census records. The orange and lemon groves and grassy fields quickly became housing tracts for suburban development. Immigrants from Asia and Mexico began to pour into the area.

“He loved it. He absolutely loved it,” Jeffrey Alexander said when asked of how his father responded to the diversification of the area. “He wanted to know about whatever people were willing to share. He poured his heart into this city.”

Few would question Alexander’s devotion to his city.

“Alexander was practically available to the community on a 24-hour basis,” a city staff member was quoted as saying after Alexander lost the 2006 mayoral election.

“He was a full-time mayor,” said a resident after the election.

Jeffrey Alexander remembered his father’s dining room, which was often blanketed with papers and city documents, plans, budgets, comments from staff and residents. His father would review these papers for hours, often past midnight.

“His biggest struggle was that he stretched himself too thin, trying to care for everybody, that at times he didn’t take good care of himself,” Jeffrey Alexander said.

Despite the hard work, Alexander did not do it for the merit or accomplishment, family members stressed, remembering him as averse to the spotlight.

Whenever one his children would try to bring up his accomplishments in conversation, Alexander would say, “Oh that doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about you.”

“That was dad’s big thing: don’t worry about me, don’t worry about me,” Jeffrey Alexander said.

Bree Turner, 32, of Fontana, one of Alexander’s grandchildren, recalled a time toward the end of Alexander’s time as city councilman in 2018, when an illness began to catch up to him, Turner would show up at his house with concern about his health.

“‘Don’t worry about me,’ he would say. ‘Go home and focus on your family,’” recalled Turner, who now has three children of her own. “His focus was always families and his loved ones.”

When Alexander decided to call it quits last year, his focus naturally shifted back to family.

“I don’t want to search for a way to run again,” Alexander said when announcing his retirement. “I want to search for a way to be a good grandpa.”

Along with being a good grandpa, his family said Alexander wanted to spend his retirement continuing to volunteer at the local animal shelter, where he fiercely advocated against euthanizing animals. He looked forward to continuing his Elvis Presley impersonations, an act that made his children laugh and his grandchildren laugh, and as his family hoped, would one day make his great grandchildren laugh.

Alexander died just a couple weeks shy of his 76th birthday on Feb. 13.

His children said they were planning to throw a party, but expected their father to take over and make it about his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Now, as his family is planning for Alexander’s memorial services — a program that is expected to draw many relatives, friends, colleagues, and city residents — their biggest concern is to find a place large enough to fit everyone inside.

“I don’t know of a place that’s gonna be big enough to hold everybody,” Jeffrey Alexander said. “And I don’t want anyone to feel left out.”