| | Gary was born in Huntington Park in 1950, but became a native Orange Countian shortly thereafter, when he and his family moved to Balboa in the City of Newport Beach. Gary grew his family roots in Balboa, and his parents still live there today. Gary attended Newport Harbor High School and Orange Coast College, and excelled in athletics as a member of each institution's water polo and swimming teams. Gary was named to the 1968 high school All American swim team, and the 1969 and 1970 community college All American swim teams. After finishing two years at OCC, Gary completed his education at California State University, Long Beach where in 1973 he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration. In 1974, Gary bought his first home in Santa Ana and lived there until 1987 when he relocated to Rancho Santa Margarita. During his high school and college days, Gary spent much of his free time working in the sport fishing industry as a deckhand, and later captain of several sport fishing boats operating from Newport Harbor. Gary obtained his U.S. Coast Guard Master's License in 1971 and at the time became the youngest licensed sport fishing boat captain on the west coast. Although Gary left the business as a full time occupation in 1977, he maintains his license and continues to occasionally captain fishing boats for his brother, owner of Newport Landing Sportfishing. In 1977, Gary began a successful career with the Federal government, specifically, the Department of the Navy, when he entered employment at Long Beach Naval Shipyard. During his 27 year career with the Navy, Gary has held numerous planning, production, training and management positions within various agencies and aspects of naval ship repair. Currently, Gary is employed at the Department of the Navy's Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in San Diego, a military shore command responsible for maintenance and repairs of Pacific Fleet ships home ported in San Diego. Gary is assigned as the Deputy Submarine Repair Officer within the Submarine Maintenance Division. As the senior civilian manager, Gary oversees a workforce of over 250 military and civilian personnel who are assigned responsibility for the planning, scheduling and execution of complex maintenance and repairs performed on San Diego based nuclear submarines. After relocating to Rancho Santa Margarita in 1987, when the community was just beginning to develop, Gary became active in the community in a variety of areas. Gary co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of the Rancho Santa Margarita Cityhood Committee, the grass roots volunteer organization that brought cityhood to RSM. Gary also served for 5 years on the Board of Directors of SAMLARC, RSM's largest master homeowners association; 3 years as its Vice President. Gary later served for 2 years on the Rancho Santa Margarita Civic Council. Gary is a member of the Santa Margarita Water District Citizen's Advisory Board, a consumer advisory group sponsored by the SMWD Board of Directors. The residents of Rancho Santa Margarita elected Gary to the City's first City Council in November of 1999 during the cityhood incorporation election. He has served on the City Council since incorporation, having been re-elected in 2002. Gary served as the City's Mayor Pro Tempore in 2002 and Mayor in 2003. Gary represents the City on the Board of Directors of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the coalition of South County cities which has successfully worked to prevent an airport from being developed at El Toro, serving as Vice-Chairman in 2003 and 2004, is the City's representative on the Orange County Public Library Advisory Board, and serves as the City's representative on the Board of Trustees of the Orange County Vector Control District. Gary also served for three years (2003-2005) on the Advocacy Committee for the Orange County Division of the League of California Cities. |
