Bill Valenzuela, Businessman and Family Man

Bill Valenzuela, businessman, family man, and native lifelong Southern Arizonan, is Gabrielle Giffords’ supporter of the week. Bill is supporting Giffords because of her record in protecting the military when they served together on the Civilian Support Committee for the 162nd Fighter Wing. “I know that she’s going to do right by the military,” said Bill.

Bill was born in Tucson, and attended Tucson High School. He has been married to his wife, Celina, for 54 years. “We’ve been going steady since I was 14 and she was 13,” he said. “Family is very important to me. We’re a close-knit family. We do everything together.” He and Celina have raised five daughters and one son, as well as 17 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. “I’m putting all my faith in Gabby to take care of them.”

The work ethic that allowed him to found and grow a successful business was developed early by his family. “I come from a very poor family,” Bill said. “My father said, ‘If they give you a plate of beans, you work for it by chopping wood, cleaning the chicken coop, or pulling out weeds.’ ”

During the Korean War, Bill served in the Marine Corps. Although he could have collected months of unemployment upon his discharge, he went to work three days after getting home. He decorated windows in stores, and spent 20 years honing his journeyman drywall skills.

In 1979, he founded his family’s business, W.G. Valenzuela Drywall. The company does metal framing, painting, and self-leveling floors. 27 years after its founding, the business employs about 350 people in two locations.

Bill got to know Gabrielle Giffords when she came back to Tucson to take over her family’s tire business, and Bill was serving on the Civilian Support Committee of the 162nd Air National Guard. “She was instrumental in helping us with military affairs when she took over El Campo. She was a real big supporter,” Bill said. She joined Bill’s committee and played a major role in defending the 162nd Fighter Wing Base when it was threatened with closure. “Our community saved the base by working together,” he said. “Gabrielle was even working for the defense of the nation when she was so young.”

Bill is a Democrat, but does not vote the party line. “I voted for Reagan. I voted for Bush the first time. And I voted for Bush’s dad. But I also voted for Clinton,” he said, noting that, “my business did damn well with Clinton.”

Gabrielle is the right choice, Bill says, because she shares the spirit of bipartisanship. “Gabby’s going to be doing it for America, not for the party,” he said. “And that’s what we need to do to get back to where we need to be. She’s going to get things started so we can start heading that way. I know she’s going to do the job. She goes out on a limb for the right thing.”

Bill decries the direction our country is headed, and longs for new leadership. “It scares me what my grandchildren are going to come up with, with all the debt that they’re leaving us.” Bill also decries the mismanagement of the war in Iraq, and calls for new leadership in the Department of Defense, stating that Secretary of Defense has “been off-track since Day One. The Generals have been telling me how bad it’s been in the war — not enough troops, not enough equipment — and nobody’s listening to them,” he said.

Bill also wants a new direction that looks out for everyone, not just the privileged and connected. “Why can’t we negotiate for the betterment of our citizens — for the poor and rich? I’ve got my hopes really high with Gabby. For the betterment of our nation, not just for a certain class of people, she’s gonna do it for all of us.”

Bill’s business continues to be successful, and some of his children and grandchildren also work there. He has been named the Tucson Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, and has also received that honor for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Ever the family man, he recently went to Disneyland — with 30 family members.