Balboa Island resident rallies support for renaming park for late neighbor Ralph Rodheim

Ralph Rodheim woke up every day with an agenda and a drive, according to those who knew him best.

Now his friend and neighbor Larry Kallestad has a drive of his own: to persuade the city of Newport Beach to rename Balboa Island Park for Rodheim, a leading island resident who died this year.

Balboa Island Park, one of more than 60 city parks, is a few yards from the ferry dock. The grassy pocket has a community room, a basketball hoop and a slide. Fragrant magnolia trees shade its wooden benches. The free summer pop concerts that Rodheim helped establish in his final months are held on the grass.

Kallestad is gathering signatures in support of the name change. It’s not a requirement, but he said city staff told him it would be a good idea. Most people he’s talked to eagerly support honoring Rodheim at the park, he said.

“There’s never gonna be another Ralph Rodheim come along,” Kallestad said.

He isn’t sure when the naming request will go before the city Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission, which will review it before potential City Council consideration. But he knows it will require a bending of city rules.

The city has a policy against naming parks after people, reasoning that Newport Beach has a lot of deserving people but only so many parks.

But it will make exceptions. It did so for fallen police officer Bob Henry and last month for late actor and local resident John Wayne. The decision to rename Ensign View Park after Wayne came on a direct council vote instead of going through the parks commission, as the Rodheim request will.

Kallestad met Rodheim in 2006, when they served on the board of the Balboa Island Parade. The parade was one of Rodheim’s many volunteer projects.

Kallestad compiled a list, spilling onto two pages, of Rodheim’s other civic ventures: Balboa Island Improvement Assn., Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce Commodores, Orange County Marathon committee, Newport Beach Harbor Commission, California Boating and Waterways Commission, Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, Balboa Yacht Club.

Across the harbor in Balboa Village, he served the business improvement district, chalk art festival, Cinco de Mayo celebration and Christmas tree lighting ceremony. He led a group of organizers to bring an Olympic-size swimming pool to Corona del Mar High School. His love of sailing led to the local Wooden Boat Festival.

Along with the concerts in the neighborhood park, he established the classical music concert series at St. John Vianney Chapel.

In 2010, he was named Newport Beach Citizen of the Year.

He died Feb. 5 of complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 72.

According to Kallestad, Rodheim had “25 hours in every day, and he used all 30 of them.”

Rodheim moved to Balboa Island as a teenager. He spent time as a schoolteacher in Garden Grove and as an Army officer stationed in Georgia and Korea. By 1974, he and his wife, Penny, were back in Newport Beach, living in the Port Streets, she said.

They made their home on Balboa Island in 1989. He wanted to be near the water.

“That’s what he always said: ‘I bleed salt water,’” Penny Rodheim said.

Ralph Rodheim left teaching and founded a marketing firm. Then he and Penny owned Balboa Boat Rentals.

In 2013, he was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurological condition that causes muscle weakness. But it didn’t stop his community activity. For Balboa Island’s centennial in 2016, he helped commission the mural near the ferry dock and the bronze statue at South Bay Front and Marine Avenue.

Eventually the disease quieted his speech. It didn’t stop his voice. Using a gaze-activated computerized communication device — and speaking through Penny, who knew how his mind worked — he put together the summer concerts.

Penny said her husband did everything with efficiency, precision and focus.

He wasn’t paid for his civic activities.

“He just liked to see things happen,” Penny said.

Penny said she doesn’t want to go against the grain but would appreciate the tribute of renaming the park.

“He was a community organizer and he loved the community,” she said.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD