He was ‘wonderful’ public servant

Former Huntington Beach Mayor and longtime Orange County Water District board member Wesley Bannister died of cancer Dec. 10. He was 73.

Bannister served on the Water District board of directors, was appointed director of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and was appointed to the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirement Plan.

Bannister served on the City Council from 1986 to 1990, and as mayor in 1988. A longtime Huntington Beach resident, he moved to the city with his wife, Elizabeth Ann Rogers Bannister, in 1969. Bannister was a “wonderful” public servant, said former Mayor Ron Shenkman.

“He’ll be sorely missed by a lot of people in this community,” Shenkman said.

Bannister liked to ask questions, even if they were tough ones, said former Mayor Ralph Bauer. He remembers Bannister always asking, “Why are we doing this?”

“He was a very honorable, straightforward, straight-from-the-hip kind of guy,” Bauer said.

Bannister started his own Huntington Beach insurance company, Bannister and Associates, in 1974 and ran the company until his retirement in 2003. He was elected to the Orange County Water District Board of Directors in 1991 and was reelected every four years until 2007, when he was elected district first vice President. While serving on the water district board, he contributed to the introduction of the Groundwater Replenishment System, the largest water purification project of its kind.

He was also appointed director of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and served as chair of the board.

“Gosh, I’m going to miss him, and boy, the water community is really, really going to miss him,” Huntington Beach Mayor Cathy Green said.

Bannister was active in the community and served on the board of the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA, as charter president of the Huntington Beach Sunrise Rotary Club and as an advisor to the Huntington Beach Search and Rescue Post 536.

“He was so involved, and he went far beyond the normal elected official,” said Orange County Water District Board Member Jan Debay. “He was always a johnny-on-the-spot.”

Bannister was born in Texas and graduated from West Point. He was stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where he married his wife in 1959.

Bannister is survived by his wife, daughters Catherine Ann and Alice Elizabeth, son Douglas Mastin and grandchildren Kaitlyn Michelle and Brent Douglas.