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Willard Robert 'Bill' MacAloney, Supermarket Executive
b.17 Oct 1935 Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts
d.21 May 2014 Orange County, California
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 1935
(edit)
m. 20 Oct 1956
Facts and Events
[edit] About W.R. "Bill" MacAloney[edit] Early LifeWillard Robert (W.R.) "Bill" MacAloney was born in Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts on 17 October 1935. He was born at the height of the Great Depression, the son of Helen Annie MacAloney and a Mr. Manning, who worked in the furniture-making industry and supposedly lived in nearby Marlborough, Massachusetts [needs additional research]. Due to his mother's very poor financial condition, Bill was placed into an orphanage at age 2, and spent several years in various orphan's and foster homes, often under adverse conditions. He was forced to endure poor treatment in several of the early homes and rarely saw his mother, who visited him only a few times when he lived in the Massachusetts area. At age 16, Bill made the decision to run away from the home he was living at the time and was caught the first time and beaten by his foster parents. The second time he ran away for good and never looked back. He managed to hitchhike his way across the country with no money in his pocket and eventually made it to Los Angeles, California. The final stop in Bill's cross-country journey was on the corner of 85th and Broadway in Los Angeles. He had no money, only the clothes on his back, and was in an area of the country where he didn’t know anyone or where anything was. Bill MacAloney was literally starting his life from scratch. Bill went into the church located on the corner, explained his situation and they helped by providing a place to sleep. The church located on the corner became the Heavenly Vision Baptist Church in 1956. The people at the church assisted him in finding employment and odd-jobs, including work as a furniture mover, in a chemical factory and later he found a job working in the supermarket industry for Clark's Market on Pacific Coast Highway and Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance, California. His second supermarket job, in 1956, was working as a warehouseman at Foods Company #3 in Torrance on 174th and Crenshaw unloading trucks. It was hard work unloading trucks when product came in “dead-piled” stacked from the floor to the ceiling and had to be stacked and unloaded with hand-trucks. This was a few years before slip sheets, pallets or pallet jacks came onto the scene. [edit] Supermarket CareerIn about 1960, Bill was tired of unloading trucks and wanted to get out of the backroom, so he went and applied for a job at a large wholesaler in Southern California, Certified Grocers. Unfortunately, at the time, they had a height requirement that Bill couldn’t quite meet, so instead he went to work in the grocery department for White Front Stores at their Hawthorne Blvd. location, which was at the time a 11-store chain on the west coast run by Interstate Department Stores, which was led by their President, Sol Cantor. Interstate later folded in the 1973 recession, was re-organized out of bankruptcy with the company’s only remaining retail format, Toys-R-Us. By the mid-1960's, Bill MacAloney had moved up to manage Hollywood Ranch Market on Hollywood & Vine St. in Los Angeles, then in the late 60’s, Bill managed Archie’s Ranch Market on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood. Bill no-doubt picked up experience from each of his early jobs in the supermarket industry, and by 1970 was managing the Hollymont Market on Vermont & Sunset. Bill ended up buying the Hollymont Market from the owner that couldn’t pay his bills. Bill didn’t have much money at the time, but within 2½ years, he ended up paying off the $38,000 that he owed, and it was during this time period that Bill learned the importance of having good cash flow to pay your bills. Bill later sold the Hollymont market to the city through eminent domain, which was later demolished to become the Los Feliz U.S. Post Office branch. Bill took the money he made from his market in Hollywood, and purchased a store named "JAX Market" in Buena Park, California. [edit] Certified GrocersIn 1980 Bill MacAloney ran for the Board of Directors of his co-op wholesaler, Certified Grocers. Bill was elected the following year in 1981, and served with the industry icons shown above, including Ben Schwartz, then Chairman of the Board and Lou Amen, who also served as Certified’s Chairman for many years. In 1994, Bill was elected Chairman of Certified Grocers. Bill stepped off the Certified Board in 1997. [edit] Community ServiceBill volunteered a great deal of time in service to the community. In 2000, Bill was elected to the City Council of the City of Villa Park, was elected Mayor twice, in 2000 and again in 2010, and during that time, he gave back the money normally given to members of the Council while serving. In 2004, Bill ran for the 60th State Assembly District in the Primary Election on the Republican Slate. Bill found himself ahead in some early polls, but he was running against a career politician’s wife, and after several negative campaign attack mailers were directed towards him and he responded in-kind, he and the politician’s wife ended up losing to a third candidate running on the Republican slate. Bill found out first-hand that politics, especially dirty politics, were particularly distasteful. After the 2004 election, Bill was appointed to the State Board of Accountancy by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which regulates the Accounting Profession in California. He served on the Board for four years. [edit] Giving Back to the Worthy Causes & Food IndustryBill MacAloney believed in giving back to the community, the food industry and also to many important charitable causes including the Mexican American Grocer's Association, the Western Association of Food Chains (served on Board for 14 years), served as Chairman of the California Grocer's Association (CGA), Co-Chairman of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), the City of Hope (served as the 2002 Chairman of the "Food Industry Circle"), on the Board of Directors of St. Joseph Hospital for five years, the Breast Cancer Detection & Prevention (Be Aware) Foundation, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and donated a truckload of food to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Dairy/Deli/Bakery Council for several years in the 1970's. Bill never forgot his difficult upbringing and often helped others in need, including some of his half-siblings, friends and strangers alike. [edit] AwardsFor his service and support of many industry and charitable organizations, MacAloney received several awards during his life including: the "Retailer of the Year" from the Mexican-American Grocers Association (MAGA), the "Golden Bell Award" from the Anaheim Union School District, the "Spirit of Life Award" from the Food Industry Circle of the City of Hope, [edit] HobbiesAmong Bill MacAloney's passions in life included playing golf in food industry tournaments, flying, collecting classic cars and he was particularly proud of his Disney art & memorabilia collection, which he collected over many years. [edit] Fight with CancerIn later years, Bill was stricken with an aggressive form of Pancreatic Cancer, which he managed to fight for a few years and out-live many estimates from his doctors, but the repeated treatments eventually took their toll, Bill lost his brave fight with Cancer on May 21, 2014 in a hospice in Orange County, California. He was survived by his wife of 47 years, Gwen, four children including Bill's two daughters from a previous marriage, Tammy Wilson and Debbie Martin, ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
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