J.W. "Bill" Feighner

News Obituary Article

COLUMBUS: Bill Feighner, 88, ex-mayor

Former Columbus mayor J.W. 'Bill' Feighner, 88, died Thursday at his home

Mr. Feighner was elected mayor in 1982, winning his first political campaign as an independent against Democrat and Republican contenders.

Mr. Feighner 'was a genuine human being who cared for his city very much,' said Columbus Mayor Bob Poydasheff, who worked in Mr. Feighner's election campaign in 1982.

His administration faced running a growing city under a $50 million budget cap, which Mr. Feighner criticized frequently as a barrier to economic growth and as an obstacle to Columbus becoming a progressive city.

Mr. Feighner continued to keep an interest in the city later in life, being listed as a plaintiff in a 2000 lawsuit against the city that challenged the city's tax assessment freeze that began in 1982.

'He loved Columbus and felt what he was doing was in the interests of the city,' said former Columbus mayor Bobby Peters.

Mr. Feighner enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, serving as an engineer and statistical officer in the China-Burma-India campaign. When he was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946, he worked for Tom Huston Peanut Co., where the father of his late wife, Margaret, was president.

© 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution