A standing-room-only group of Lake Elsinore community leaders and other area residents gathered Wednesday afternoon to honor a longtime City Council member who died of colon cancer late last month at age 86.

Robert Schiffner was remembered for helping guide Lake Elsinore as a planning commissioner and council member during one of its largest growth spurts. He was also remembered for his wit, quiet mannerisms and his devotion to youth programs and his religious faith.

"He was a Christian man and that carried through everything he did," Jeanie Corral, a longtime school board member and community newspaper editor, said in an interview. "You never heard him say anything unkind about anyone."

Schiffner worked for the city of Long Beach for Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] 28 years as a draftsman and inspector. He wed Nell Goodson in 1954, and they were married 31 years before she died. She married Marilyn Clinger in 1987, and they moved to Lake Elsinore five years later.

Schiffner served on the city Planning Commission from January 1996 until March 1999, when he shifted to the council. He served on the council until December 2008. He was mayor in 2000, and served as mayor pro-tem three times. He was involved with the development of McVicker Skate Park in 2002 and Lincoln Park in 2007.

In his free time, he enjoyed socializing, skeet shooting, fishing and working on home improvement projects.

He was diagnosed with cancer about three months before his death.