Former Goleta Mayor Ed Easton Passes Away

By edhat staff

Ed Easton, the former mayor of Goleta and city councilmember, passed away Wednesday morning from health complications following a stroke, reports The Independent.

He was 83 years old.

Easton served as Goleta’s Mayor from December 2011 to December 2012 and councilmember in 2018 and re-elected in 2012. He also served as a member of the Goleta Planning Commission, the Design Review Board, and the City of Goleta Old Town Project Advisory Committee. In 2014 he was required to resign from the Goleta City Council as they moved to Noleta, outside the city limits.

Born on the East Coast, Easton earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Yale University. He became a licensed architect in 1968 while living in North Carolina and served as Director of Housing and Physical Planning in Charlotte’s Model Cities Urban Renewal Program until he joined the staff of the National Wildlife Federation to create a Leadership Development program. In 1988 he founded the Institute for Conservation Leadership, a nonprofit organization with a six-year grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, according to the Gaviota Coast Conservancy.

Easton and his wife Ky retired to the Santa Barbara coast in 2000, and lived in and renovated a 1913 California bungalow in Old Town Goleta. Among his many civic leadership positions, he also volunteered in the Sierra Club, leading Groups, Chapters, and as the Appalachian Regional Vice President. He was also a board member of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy since 2004 and founded Friends of Coal Oil Point Reserve. 

[Photo: Ed Easton / Gaviota Coast Conservancy]