The Rotarians Behind the Chula Vista Rotary Scholarships
Chula Vista Rotarians have supported local high school students in academics and community service since the club's founding in 1926. Over the decades, the Chula Vista Rotary has donated tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to support graduating high school seniors pursuing their college and university dreams. Today, the Chula Vista Rotary funds the Joseph Rindone Scholarship for Community Service and the Bill Padelford Scholarship for Academic Achievement, named in recognition of two extraordinary Chula Vista Rotarians.
Joseph "Joe" Rindone, Jr.
Joseph “Joe” Rindone Jr. (1910-1999) was a legendary San Diego County educator and a past president of the Rotary Club of Chula Vista. His distinguished educational career and devotion to service above self led to his becoming the namesake of the Chula Vista Rotary Club’s scholarship award to graduating high school scholars who demonstrate significant contributions to community service.
Born in Independence, Kansas, as the eldest of two sons to Sicilian immigrants, Joe moved as a child with his family to Los Angeles. While earning a degree in business administration and education from the University of Southern California, he worked nights as a high school custodian.
In 1933, he began a 66-year career in education when he became a teacher at Southwest Junior High School in San Diego. Within two years, he was named principal. In 1947, Joe was the founding principal of Chula Vista High School, where today the Joe Rindone Stadium stands in his honor.
In 1956, he was appointed superintendent of the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD). During his 20-year tenure, Joe supervised the largest expansion of school facilities ever seen in the South Bay with the building of 12 schools and the construction of Southwestern College. Joe served as the superintendent of Southwestern for its first six years of operation (at a salary of $1 a year!) while also maintaining his position at SUHSD.
Joe was elected in 1978 to the San Diego County Board of Education and subsequently re-elected three times. In 1989, he was inducted into the San Diego County Boards Association Hall of Fame. In 1997, the education board honored Joe’s 66-year career with the dedication of the state-of-the-art Joe Rindone Regional Technology Center.
In addition to his long history as a Chula Vista Rotarian, Joe was a member and past president of Phi Delta Kappa, Chula Vista Toastmaster’s Club, National City-Chula Vista 20-30 Club, California Association of Secondary School Administrators, California Interscholastic Federation, and Board of Managers for San Diego Section C.I.F.
He also was an honorary member of both the Chula Vista and National City Kiwanis clubs and served as a member of the Chula Vista Library Board, Chula Vista Safety Council, Community Chest Board, Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the State Commission for the Evaluation of the High School Program.
William "Bill" Padelford
William “Bill” Padelford, Ed.D., was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1929. As a young boy, Bill moved with his family to Escondido, California. There he attended Escondido High School and played in the school’s concert and marching bands.
After graduation, Bill attended San Diego State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music before being awarded a Master’s degree in Music Education in 1953. That year, Bill also married fellow SDSU student Betty Emrick and the two began a life-long love affair that lasts to this day.
After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bill received his first teaching assignment as a classroom teacher and band director for Chula Vista Junior High School. In 1959, Bill was a founding faculty member of Hilltop High School, where he directed the award-winning Hilltop Lancer Band in addition to counseling students and teaching in the classroom.
Throughout his tenure at Hilltop, Bill studied as a doctoral student at UCLA, where he earned his Doctor of Education degree in 1969. Just a year before, Bill had started an 11-year term as principal of Castle Park High School. He was appointed Superintendent of Sweetwater Union High School District in 1980, and capped off his career from 1986-1989 with the San Diego County Office of Education as the manager of its curriculum division.
After retiring from “real work,” Bill founded Mac Training, becoming a successful independent contractor providing computer training, educational research and publications for San Diego County high schools.
Bill’s history as a Rotarian began in 1968, when Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent and Chula Vista Rotarian Joe Rindone invited Bill to join the world’s oldest and largest service organization. Bill’s long and productive membership in the Chula Vista Rotary includes serving as the club’s 1978-1979 President.
Bill also served as the club’s Scholarship Committee Chairman for 24 years beginning in 1995. In 2019, the club’s Board of Directors voted to honor Bill’s illustrious career as an educator and Rotarian by establishing the Bill Padelford Scholarship for Academic Achievement.
Awarded for stellar academic performance, the Bill Padelford Academic Scholarship stands with the club’s Joseph Rindone Community Service Scholarship in recognition of two titans of education and Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self.
Updated April 28, 2022