A year later, Williams still missed

Tariq Malik

NEWPORT BEACH -- A year ago today, the city lost a human dynamo.

Rosalind Williams, who secured Newport Beach’s reputation as a tourist

destination for years to come, was remembered Sunday by her family in a

mass held in her memory.

Williams died last June at the age of 55 after a five-year battle with

breast cancer. It was a battle that she fought publicly and defiantly,

all while maintaining her ever-active command of the Newport Beach

Conference and Visitors Bureau as its president and chief executive

officer.

Today, employees of the bureau are doing their part in honoring

Williams by putting together a batch of personal donations to the Susan

G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation.

“I miss her smile, her love of life,” said her husband, Rick John,

after the mass and a family brunch. “Since her passing, a lot of her

friends have really taken a close examination at their own lives and

reflected on how she touched them.”

Williams certainly touched many.

Known for her zest for life and love for the city, Williams took up

the reigns of the visitors bureau in 1994, bringing the city both tennis

and golf competitions, yacht races and winter tourism. She even presented

a $21-million check -- symbolic of the increased revenue from tourism

taxes from the previous year -- to the City Council in April of 2000.

After the raising of her two sons, Jeff, 30, and Gregg, 25, putting

Newport Beach on the map as a tourist destination was one of Williams’

proudest achievements, John said.

In the months following her death, hundreds of friends and relatives

mourned her passing, the bureau honored her memory during its annual

dinner and still more people ran in her name during September’s Race for

the Cure fund-raiser to fight breast cancer.

At least 10 visitors bureau employees plan to make donations to the

breast cancer foundation, said John F. Cassady, the bureau’s current

president and CEO.

“The foundation, and of course the Race for the Cure, were charities

that Rosalind was really focused on,” he said. “We thought that making

the donations would be a nice way to recognize her and what she meant to

all of us.”

Cassady took over the bureau in January after serving with Williams

for more than three years as part of its executive board.

Though he knew it wouldn’t be easy to fill the shoes of Williams, a

pillar of charm and tenacity in promoting the city, Cassady said he

wasn’t apprehensive.

“Everybody has their own particular style to this job, but Rosalind

left some very great footprints to follow,” he said, adding that he won’t

know until later in the week how much the bureau raised for the Koman

Foundation.

“I just wanted to make sure that she was honored appropriately,” he

said. “Newport Beach is a premiere destination, and I think she put a

very special light on it.

“We miss her.”