Cerritos City Councilman and former mayor Jim Edwards passed away this weekend from cancer, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department confirmed in a tweet Sunday.
Edwards was 75 years old and served as Cerritos' mayor twice -- first from 2008 to 2009, then from 2012 to 2013. He was a member of the current City Council when he died.
"It has been a difficult day for me and for the city," Cerritos Mayor Pro Tem Chuong Vo told the Orange County Register. "The city and the Council are in mourning for a man who worked in the service of his community his whole life as a teacher and a councilman."
Edwards taught at Richard Gahr High School for 30 years before retiring. He also spent four years teaching at Whitney Community Learning Center and as a part-time instructor at Cerritos College.
The 43-year resident of Cerritos was an active member of Cerritos Optimist Club and sat on the Board of Directors for Fisher House of Southern California at the Long Beach VA Hospital.
