Bill Moses Dies; Longtime Publisher of Tustin News

TUSTIN —  Bill Moses, longtime publisher and owner of the Tustin News, died last week. He was 80.

For almost four decades, Moses was a fixture in Tustin.

In 1956, he and his wife, Lucille, bought the Tustin News. As a journalist, Moses “spent a lot of time talking about what was good in the community,” said Orange County Supervisor Don Saltarelli, a Tustin councilman for 13 years. “He spent a lot of time finding out how our children were good in school and the arts. He really made the community proud of itself.”

After graduation from Stanford, Moses got his first permanent job in newspapers as a reporter for the Bakersfield Californian in 1939.

When World War II began, Moses joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. His bomber was shot down in Belgium, and Moses spent almost two years as a prisoner of war.

After returning home, he worked for the Los Angeles Times for 18 months as a reporter. Over the next decade, he worked in public relations and for the Newport Harbor News-Press before taking over the Tustin News.

Last year, he sold the paper to the Freedom Newspaper chain and continued to contribute to the newspaper as a columnist.

Services were held Friday.

Moses, who was widowed in 1980, is survived by his daughter, Penny Vickers of Orange, and three grandchildren.