Over its history, Santa Clara’s Parade of Champions has celebrated many champions — from Olympic champion Mark Spitz to the nation drum and bugle corps champions, Santa Clara Vanguard — who continue to march in the parade to this day.
This year, the parade celebrates some champions of public service, for whom public service is a family tradition: Rod Diridon Sr. and Rod Diridon Jr., who share the honor of being Parade Grand Marshals. Diridons Jr. and Sr. aren’t the only family members sharing in the event. Rod Diridon III will also be there, marching for Santa Clara Vanguard.
Both elder Diridons have made their mark in the community. Rod Sr. was a California trailblazer in transportation—San José’s Diridon Station is named for him—and a longtime member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
Rod Jr. served on the Santa Clara City Council and subsequently as Santa Clara City Clerk — bringing many awards to the city in that role. The Diridons keep close in Santa Clara — Rod Sr. and Rod Jr. live next door to each other, with Rod Jr.’s sister on the next street.
This isn’t Rod Diridon Sr.’s first time as Grand Marshal — the first was in the early days of the parade in the 1970s.
“It was the single largest parade in the county for many, many years, and looked forward to by all of the elected folks because you had an opportunity of greeting thousands and thousands of people,” he said. “It celebrated the fact that Santa Clara had a lot of champions. Swimmers from the Haines Swim Center were setting records. [SwimCenterDedication1967] Santa Clara University teams were doing wonderful things. We just had a corner on all of the wonderful things that were happening in the South Bay and a way of showing them off annually with the event.
“It was lavishly supported by the city,” Diridon Sr. continued. “Larry Marsalli was the chair of the event year after year after year — everybody loved him. I got involved because I was on the County Board of Supervisors representing Santa Clara, lived in Santa Clara, and took part in a lot of the Santa Clara activities. We owe a debt of appreciation to Ana Vargas and others that are leading this resurrection of the of the parade.”
Things have changed with the passing years, but Diridon Sr. says Santa Clara still has plenty to celebrate.
“We have been doing wonderful things in Santa Clara in recent years, but we’ve kind of hidden them under our hat,” Diridon Sr. said.
“The 49ers have been doing well, and whether San Francisco likes it or not, they’re our home team,” he continued. “The commercial base is doing well. We have the best energy systems in the state coming through the city and the least expensive, most reliable electrical. Our police department is at the top of every list in terms of policing. All the measures of success are here in Santa Clara, but we haven’t told that story as much as we should.”
What does Diridon Sr. hope to see in the coming years for Santa Clara?
“What I hope most is peace in regard to these arguments around the 49ers,” he said. “It distracts us from appreciating the 49ers. Some people are saying they [the 49ers] are bad. They’re not bad, but they need to live by the contract. And the people on the council, on one side or the other of that issue, need to stop arguing about it.”
Diridon Sr. sees a lot of promise in the evolving project to rebuild Santa Clara’s historic downtown.
“There’s a group — Mary Grizzle and others leading that effort — that’s studying the downtown and has a new master plan for resurrecting our wonderful downtown,” said Diridon Sr. “It’s gotten some approvals and is now looking for some funding. It’s very creative. I think that we just start telling that story so that our population can be proud and take part in the success.”