Joseph T. Bill; First CRA Director Guided Bunker Hill Project

Joseph T. Bill, 83, the first executive director of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA, which Bill headed from 1957 to 1964, oversees public and private development downtown and elsewhere in the city. As the visionary leader in the early days of redevelopment in Los Angeles, Bill guided the planning, adoption and legal defense of the Bunker Hill Urban Renewal Project. With that project, Bill spearheaded the revitalization of downtown at a time when decentralization and suburbanization were dominant. A native of New Haven, Conn., Bill was a graduate of Yale and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. During World War II, he was a Navy photographic intelligence officer. He recently published his wartime photos of Japan and Guam in a book titled “1945 Wartime Intelligence: A Photographic Journey.” Bill also worked as a planner in Sacramento and privately with William L. Pereira Associates. During his retirement years, he painted portraits and watercolor landscapes. On June 7 in Santa Barbara.