ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Dr. Armando M. Rodriguez of San Diego, California died peacefully at home on Sunday, February 17, 2019. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Beatriz “Bea” Rodriguez; two children, Christy Rodriguez and Rod Rodriguez (Liana Rodriguez); grandchildren Emiliano Rodriguez, Miguel E. Rodriguez (Mary Rodriguez), Nicholas Rodriguez and Nadine Gonzalez Rodriguez; great grandchildren Armando R. Rodriguez, Nicholas Rodriguez and Abby Rodriguez. He was preceded in death by his parents Andres and Petra Rodriguez of San Diego, grandson Armando S. Rodriguez of Colorado and siblings Jose Encarnacion Rodriguez, Hermilia Rodriguez Rubio, Camerina Rodriguez Castro, Josefa Rodriguez Luna, Andres Rodriguez, Catalina Rodriguez, and Carlos Rodriguez. In 1927 Andres and Petra Rodriguez and their children moved from Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico to Barrio Logan in San Diego. One of those children was Armando M. Rodriguez, a man who would become the first Latino principal of a junior and senior high school in San Diego, the second Latino to be a college president in California, and a principal in the administrations of four U.S. Presidents. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to be Chief of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services) Office of Spanish Speaking American Affairs; appointed by President Richard Nixon to be Assistant Commissioner of Education in 1970; and 1978 President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the United States. A true trailblazer, Rodriguez was one of several Mexican American activists that preceded the Chicano movement of the late sixties and seventies, a movement that gave rise to a multitude of Latino groups and causes. He was a San Diego State College wrestling champion and coach and served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1944. In 1960 he headed the SoCal Viva Kennedy campaign and in 1962 he became the first Mexican American in San Diego to run for the State Assembly. Armando Rodriguez is noted as one whose lifetime “reflected a history of meeting challenges, a commitment to his community, setting standards for others to emulate and creating positive change for the benefit of society.” In 2007, he authored his life story – From the Barrio to Washington – published by the University of New Mexico Press. Funeral services will be Tuesday, March 5 at: Our Lady of Guadalupe Church 1770 Kearney Ave San Diego, CA 92113 Rosary at 10:00am, Funeral Mass at 11:00am In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to one of these organizations: Barrio Station 2175 Newton Ave, San Diego, CA 92113, 619-238-0314 Generations on the Move, https://www.generationsonthemove.org/donate-1 Casa Familiar, www.casafamiliar.org/contact/ San Diego State University Library Special Collections, https://library.sdsu.edu/scua/donate

ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ

September 30, 1921 - February 17, 2019

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