Four people who made a huge difference in Gilroy nonprofits will be honored at this year’s Chamber of Commerce Gilroy Hall of Fame induction lunch on Saturday.
Marge Albaugh founded the hugely influential and helpful St. Joseph’s Family Center. Sam Bozzo was the first chef at the Gilroy Garlic Festival and helped lay the foundation for the nonprofit that gives money to dozens of community organizations.
William Ayer and R.J. Dyer laid the groundwork for the Gilroy Foundation, the heralded nonprofit that returns millions of dollars to schools, youth, seniors and other Gilroy nonprofits.
They will be celebrated Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Old City Hall, an event expected to draw hundreds of community members. Tickets are available at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce website.
The 2016 inductees are:
Marge Albaugh
Marge Albaugh was born in Bakersfield in 1932 and died in May 2010. She moved to Gilroy in 1974 to be close to her daughter, J. Chris Mickartz.
Her community service began in the late 1970’s when she became active in the Crippled Children’s Society of Santa Clara County. She went on to become founder and president of the Hada Madrina Guild, a local arm of the society in Gilroy.
A devout Catholic and an active member of St. Mary Parish, Albaugh and a group of parish women saw a need to help the parish poor. They worked diligently to secure donations of food and clothing for the needy of their parish community.
After a time, Albaugh recognized that these needs existed throughout the entire community.
In 1981, St. Joseph’s Family Center was born. Under Albaugh’s leadership, SJFC became the giving arm of a consortium of local churches, businesses and individuals, serving the entire South County community. More than 90 percent of its financial resources go directly to assist hundreds of low-income families and the homeless.
Albaugh was honored as the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year in 1986 and received the Community Solutions Hearts of Gilroy award posthumously in 2013.
Salvatore “Sam” Bozzo
Salvatore “Sam” Bozzo was born in San Jose in 1940 and moved to GIlroy with his wife, Judy, and their sons Dave and Greg in 1976. They operated Digger Dan’s Mining Company from 1974 to 1981. Also in 1974 Judy and Sam operated the Upstairs Soup and Sandwich Parlor in the old Elks Lodge in downtown Gilroy and the Happy Stop Snack Shop in the Nob Hill Store that was located on Westwood Drive.
Before there was a garlic festival, he did the sample cooking at a party at Christopher Ranch that inspired people to begin the charitable event that put Gilroy on the map. He is a past president of the Gilroy Garlic Festival and has served as a volunteer from 1979 until now. For the last 25 years, Bozzo and his cooking partner Gene Sakahara have performed as SakaBozzo, “twins separated at birth” on the festival’s cook-off stage.
Bozzo, along with Sakahara, wrote a cookbook titled Any Bozzo Can Cook, the proceeds of which have been turned into the SakaBozzo Scholarship through the Gilroy Foundation. The scholarship is focused for graduating high school students pursuing a degree in education or the culinary arts. They are planning to release their second cookbook in time for the Garlic Festival’s 40th anniversary in 2018.
William E. Ayer
Bill Ayer was born in 1934 in San Mateo. As director of Gilroy’s Park and Recreation Department from 1968 to 1982, he helped build Gilroy’s park system. Ayer was able to foresee Gilroy’s nonprofit needs after the passing of Proposition 13 and helped found numerous community support agencies and nonprofits.
He started Gilroy’s Senior Citizen Program in 1972 and helped found the Gavilan Chapter of the Special Olympics in 1975.
In 1980, he recognized that Gilroy did not have a vehicle for giving to funds local nonprofits or schools. Together with other local businessmen, Ayer founded the nonprofit Gilroy Foundation which has directed millions of dollars to schools, youth, seniors and other Gilroy nonprofits. He was its first president and served on its board from 1981 to 1995.
Ayer was president of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association in 1981. The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce named him the Man of the Year in 1987. He was president of Gilroy Rotary in 1998-99. He was the general manager of A Family Adventure from 1988 to 1994, which later became Gilroy Gardens. He was also instrumental in planning of the Eagle Ridge Golf Course.
RJ “Bob” Dyer
Robert J. “Bob” Dyer was born in 1933 in Moline, Illinois, and passed away in March 2016 in Gilroy.
From a tough, fatherless boyhood to successes in college football, the military and real estate development, Dyer helped shape Gilroy as it is today.
Known as ‘RJ’ and ‘cowboy’, Dyer was a larger-than-life character whose boisterous antics engendered a full range of emotions from those who knew him.
Bob grew up in Pendleton, Oregon, famous for its annual rodeo, and attended Willamette University. He joined the Air Force and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. He was stationed in Europe, the U.S. and Vietnam. He flew treetop missions in Vietnam that soaked the jungles with the chemical agent orange.
Dyer was a longtime member of the Gilroy Rotary and president of the Chamber of Commerce, coming up with ideas for the Chamber’s Breakfast Club, Nob Hill Good Egg Award and Hall of Fame. He was named the Chamber of Commerce’s 1986 man of the year.
He was one of the Founders of the Gilroy Foundation which grew to be Gilroy’s largest philanthropic nonprofit. He was an early director of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association’s board.
As a developer, he proposed the Eagle Ridge golf and housing development. In addition to his role in Eagle Ridge, his company, RJ Dyer Real Property Investments, with its catchy yellow and orange signs, developed Hecker Pass Plaza off First Street, the Gilroy Auto Mall, Orchard Supply Center and other successful commercial ventures.
