Vince Del Pozzo

Aka the Dinosaur

Meet our ubiquitous board member Vince Del Pozzo. He is sometimes referred to as “The Dinosaur” because he refuses to be dragged into the computer era. After years of frustration the LHSSL Board has taken it upon themselves to add email to his television programming. Now the only trick will be to get him to open it. He was first appointed to the board in 2002 to complete the term of a resigning member and has served for 5 of the last 6 years. While his most prominent job has been as player rep, he has also served on numerous committees. In the early days of the league he was instrumental in organizing the Sun Cup tournament; pitting our teams against the teams of Sun City Roseville.

Vince was born and raised with four brothers and two sisters in Port Washington, Long Island in New York where he graduated from Mineola High School.

As he reached his 18^th birthday he received greetings from President Harry S. Truman announcing Vince’s reservation in the US Army. Fortunately the war was winding down and he spent his enlistment stateside. While the Army did insist on an office job, he spent most of his time playing ball. When he was stationed in Missouri he became good friends with Tom Brown who had been drafted while a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When the Army baseball team recruited Tom, he refused to play unless they also took Vince. After a transfer to Fort Polk, Louisiana Vince played fast-pitch softball (baseball not being available) until his honorable discharge.

At the age of 20 he returned home to discover his family was moving to California to be near relatives in Mountain View. His father opened a small restaurant named Grab-a-Bite in Menlo Park and envisioned Vince working by his side. This plan held no allure for Vince so he went down and applied for an opening in the Menlo Fire Department. He was hired in February of 1948 and rose through the ranks from firefighter to engineer to fire chief; remaining on the job for over 36 years. During those years, he kept his athletic skills sharp playing shortstop on a semi-pro baseball team in San Francisco.

He met his wife, Betty, through a mutual friend in 1953. Betty had attended nursing school in Moline, Illinois and upon graduation in the company of other new nurses decided to move to California. She was hired by Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City where she was working when she started dating Vince. They were married in April of 1954 and were soon the proud parents of two girls. The oldest, Kimberly, now lives in Birmingham, Alabama along with her daughter, (the mother of Vince’s 17 month old great-grandson). His other daughter Kelley, mother of two, lives in Twain Harte. Her son, Keo, and daughter, Nicole, were born in Hawaii.

While raising their two daughters Vince persevered to get an education. He earned an AA in Fire Service from the College of San Mateo in 1969. He also earned a Certificate in Management from the University of Santa Clara and also holds a life teaching certificate for Fire Science; being qualified to teach at any California college offering a program in Fire Science.

Vince continued his love of the game playing in a recreational fast-pitch league in Menlo Park and in a more competitive eight city Bay Area fast-pitch league until he was 42 years of age. Usually he played shortstop, but anywhere on the infield was fine. He confesses he had no talent for the outfield, and no patience to learn the finer points of running routes and getting the best angles to make the throws.

After retiring from the fire department in 1985, Vince became involved in several business ventures. For a year he invested in, and did the books for his nephew’s window and door business. The following year he was hired by the state to travel to various small towns to train the volunteer fire departments. In 1990 he became interim fire chief for Ukiah Valley Fire, spending six months reorganizing the department. He then became a partner in Lund, Pearson and McLauglin: a company that repairs the fire prevention sprinkler systems in buildings. Later he became general manager of the Palo Alto Elks Lodge for a year and a half, concentrating his efforts on increasing revenue for the organization.

Meanwhile Vince’s brother, Louie was having a wonderful time living in Sun City Roseville and playing in their softball league. He kept insisting that Vince needed to buy a home there. So at last Vince and Betty came out to take a look. Vince turned to his brother and vowed, “I could never live here. It’s too flat!” He thought that would be the end of it. Wrong! One Monday morning during their weekly phone call Louie said, “They’re building a Sun City in Lincoln and I’ve found the perfect lot. Send me a deposit; you’re going to love it.”

Vince sent the deposit sight unseen and he did love it; although they have recently downsized into a small house. After the move in 2001 Vince listened to his brother and gave softball a chance, signing up for the summer league. (His first experience with slo-pitch when he was 60 had lasted only a few games because he found it bor…ing.) Unfortunately his brother passed away a few months later, so his dream of a softball rivalry was not to be.

His career with LHSSL started slowly as a player on the Lincoln Travel and Cruise Team. He continued to play and managed several teams including the first Coyotes 65 team until knee surgery limited his participation to umpiring and being a board member. He spent one year as head umpire when there were less than 8 umpires.

With all his experience as player, manager, umpire and board member the one thing Vince would like to see is for everyone to relax and realize the summer league is a recreation league and the goal should be for everyone to have fun.