(Oct. 13, 2021, 8:10 p.m.) -- At a dinner Monday night held at the sumptuous Belmont Shore estate of construction mogul and former UCLA football standout Andy Meyers that climaxed another successful sold-out Phil Trani Boys & Girls Club Golf Tournament, there was a poignant scene in which Mr. Trani and Don Rodriguez were seen warmly embracing. .

Phil Trani long has been one this city's most prominent restaurateurs at his eponymous establishment on Long Beach Blvd., where he has etched a widespread reputation with his devoted, eclectic clientele for his cooking, his drinking, his story-telling, his fraternizing and his fund-raising for charitable causes.

Mr. Rodriguez, of course, is the long-time President/CEO of the Long Beach Boys & Girls Club, a gentleman of astounding leadership and personality who also has forged a widespread reputation during his 18-year tenure for his formidable fund-raising skills that has resulted in more than $50 million enhancing his organization's coffers.

Don Rodriguez

Don Rodriguez took over the Boys & Girls operation here in June of 2003 when it was struggling ominously, but it is now thriving with fully-staffed outlets in 12 locations---nine of which are on school campuses---and membership of almost 4,000 with a daily turnout of more than 2,000.

The President/CEO of the Long Beach Boys & Girls Club, Don Rodriguez, standing among the kids at one of his properties.

``We're so fortunate to have a great Board of Directors and great community support with so many people like Phil Trani giving so much of themselves to help our cause,'' says Mr. Rodriguez. ``I'm just so appreciative to so many people that to name them all would be impossible.''

But he did name one, for sure, and that's Phil Trani, whose six-year golf tournament has raised more than $500,000 for which Mr. Rodriguez is so appreciative that he's actually decided to affix a lasting honor of gratitude for Mr. Trani.

``The gym at the Boys & Girls Club-John C. & Alice Wallace-Petrolane Center at 1920 Lemon Avenue will soon become known as the Phil Trani Gym,'' relates Mr. Rodriguez. ``Phil tells the story when he was a kid, and he played in the old Boys Club in San Pedro in socks because he couldn't afford to buy tennis shoes. And he told me, despite that, he played there almost every day. I guess the Boys Club played a major role in Phil's youth.''

It also played a major role in Don Rodriguez's youth in Hollywood, where he grew up in a home not far from Grauman's Chinese Theatre with his three brothers and a sister and where he played at the local Boys Club which years later he oversaw in its incarnation as the Boys & Girls Club in a new building he helped purchase.

[Scroll down for further.]

And how did the Rodriguez family wind up in Hollywood?

Well, it turns out that his grandfather on his mother's side, a gentleman named Giovanni Mazzucco, an immigrant from Italy, had become a wigmaker for the cosmetic magnate Max Factor in New York.

"Max Factor loved my grandfather, and brought him to Hollywood when he relocated his business to make wigs for all of the film studios,'' says Mr. Rodriguez. ``A picture of my dad is on display in the Max Factor section of the Hollywood Museum that is located in the old Max Factor building on Highland Avenue.''

Mr. Rodriguez's mother was born in New York and his father grew up in East Los Angeles, and they were set up by an aunt who worked at the Max Factor store with his father's sister.

Clearly, Don Rodriguez inherited his work ethic from his father, who long maintained a full-time job with a pest control company and a part-time one as a ticket-taker at Dodger Stadium.

``My dad took me to dozens of Dodger games across the years,'' recalls Mr. Rodriguez. ``I'd buy a 75 cent admission ticket and sit at the top level of Dodger Stadium. I saw so many great games and so many great players. I always remember recalling Rick Monday ripping the American flag away from a couple set to burn it and Bob Welch striking out Reggie Jackson in the World Series and Hank Aaron hitting a home run. What fabulous memories.. . .''

Don Rodriguez attended Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks where he was a lineman on the football team for two years before a knee injury sidelined him permanently.

``To put it mildly, I had a most unpromising football career,'' he laughs.

During the summers of his high school and even college years, he bagged groceries at the old Boy's Market near his residence, eventually working himself up to a managerial position.

He attended Cal State LA, and after completing his studies got into the insurance business, operating his own Farmers agency for 13 years in West L.A. before he was persuaded to get into the non-profit industry. He soon took over a struggling Boys and Girls Club in Hollywood that he revived impressively during the six years he ran it.

Don Rodriguez wound up buying a home in Long Beach in 1988 at the urging of his wife, the former Cindy Crofut of Lakewood, and it's a decision that would have a dramatic impact on his life.

He would make the acquaintance of a wealthy Long Beach Boys & Girls Club Board member, Mitch Rouse, who at the time was the owner of Super Shuttle and the Long Beach Yellow Cab Company.

``Mitch was the person who persuaded me to come to Long Beach and take over the Boys & Girls clubs here,'' says Mr. Rodriguez.`` He had been trying to get me to come for over two years and finally I decided to do it since the daily drive to Hollywood had started to become an agonizing grind for me.''

The Rodriguezes have four children---three sons and a daughter---and all are college graduates, and have attended such schools as Seton Hall, UC Santa Barbara and Princeton.

``My wife and I are so fortunate to have great kids,'' says Mr. Rodriguez.

And Long Beach is fortunate to have Don Rodriguez, who's responsible for expanding the local Boys & Girls Clubs that has resulted in so many more kids around town having greater opportunities for participation in sporting activities.

Mr. Rodriguez himself for the past two months has been on quite a strenuous exercise routine, walking 15 miles daily---sometimes even farther---as he's been training for a two-day, 50-mile fund-raising walk that he and one of his Board members and personal physician, Dr. Grant Uba, will commence at 6 Friday morning in San Onofre.

They will stroll 25 miles to Newport Beach, and the final 25 on Saturday winding up at the end of the Long Beach Peninsula next to the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.

``We've already raised $60,000 for the event, and our goal is to hit $70,000,'' says Mr. Rodriguez, no fitness aficionado whose 61-year-old legs aren't exactly accustomed to such a grueling two-day regimen..

``I'm doing it to raise money for our clubs,'' says Don Rodriguez, who clearly spends most of his waking hours figuring out new and exotic ways to generate money for his beloved clubs. ``If it turns out well and we meet our fund-raising goals, maybe we'll try a 100-mile, two-day walk next year from San Diego to The Peninsula. Our goal would be to double what we will raise this year...''

Sponsor

Sponsor

Sponsor

Sponsor

Sponsor

Sponsor