Nimrod Ping

After attending the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe from 1964 to 1966 he studied architecture at Cardiff University.[1]

As an architect, he designed a Sainsbury's supermarket in Lewes Road, Brighton.[2]

Ping served as a councillor at the former Brighton Borough Council (now Brighton and Hove) for eight years from 1991 to 1999.[3] He became chairman of the Council's planning committee and of the licensing committee.[2] Thanks to his unusual name, he achieved national fame after the BBC Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan used his name as scale against which to compare other interesting names.[2]

He was one of the first openly gay councillors in Britain.[3] He took part in Brighton's "Gay Pride" events for a number of years.[2] He convinced other councillors to allow gay clubs in Brighton to stay open after midnight.[4]

He was diagnosed as suffering from Hepatitis C in the late 1990s.[3] He became known locally as the face of southern England's Hepatitis C Campaign[5] and was the face of Brighton and Hove's leading shopping centre for a while during which the shopping centre joined his appeal in return for having a leading politician's support.

Originally a Labour Party supporter, he joined the Green Party a few months before his death.[6]

He died of hepatitis-related liver failure in 2006.[2] His funeral took place at St Margaret's Church in Rottingdean on 20 July 2006,[7] where his gravestone reads '"Architect, Musician and Troublemaker" Arrived late, left too early, d. 3rd July 2006'.