wasn’t the only calling in Pasquinelli’s life. As mentioned above, he was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Tucson in 1991 after several years of taking the required training. Besides tending to his own family matters, Deacon Pasquinelli has provided many services for his church, including preaching at Mass, running the infant baptism program, performing baptism interviews, teaching classes and delivering communion to nursing homes on occasion. Pasquinelli and his wife, Barbara, have four daughters. Their daughter, Kirsten, passed away from Adrenocortical Carcinoma and a foundation was established to cure this disease thereby supporting her legacy. He also called his sister and silent business partner, Adrienne McLaughlin, a great help over the years in all aspects of his life. Though Pasquinelli Produce was a member of Western Growers for many years under the tutelage of his father, it wasn’t until the late 1960s, when the labor battles came to Yuma, that the company got more involved with the association. Gary began working with WG lawyers and President Daryl Arnold to defeat the unionization efforts. As the ‘70s dawned, the fight intensified. “We ended up beating the union and were able to harvest our entire 2,000 acre cantaloupe crop under strike conditions. I remember Daryl Arnold saying of me that I am the kind of ‘young leadership’ that the board needed. I was about 28 at the time.” A couple of years later, longtime WGA Yuma director Sid Woods retired. “With his blessing, I ran for the position and have been a director ever since. My blood is in the bricks,” he said of WGA, recalling many services and activities that he was intimately involved in over the past five decades. He spoke of the advent of harvest-time strike insurance and noted that he was the person who came up with the name Quail Street Casualty for the association’s off-shore insurance entity. The name came from the street that housed the association headquarters in the 1970s. Pasquinelli recalls that he was asked to serve as chairman in the early 1990s but his deacon duties took precedent and he declined the honor. In 2000, he did serve as chairman under President Dave Moore. “I was very close to Dave and delivered the eulogy at his funeral.” The following year he chaired the search committee that brought Tom Nassif to the president’s position. Pasquinelli remembers meeting Nassif during the tumultuous labor battles when the future WG CEO was a young labor attorney. As chairman, and throughout the years, Pasquinelli said he has been guided by the notion of being a “servant leader…
(l to r) Alex Muller, Pasquinelli Produce Co.; Cong. Martha McSally (R-AZ-2); Robby Barkley, president of Barkley Ag Enterprises; Sonny Rodriguez, president of the Growers Company; Gary Pasquinelli, CEO of Pasquinelli Produce Company.
leading by example. I got so much more out of it than I ever gave,” he said, greatly undervaluing his service. He believes deeply in the work of Western Growers and the concepts of “circling the
wagons” and “strength in numbers.” And he also knows it was time to step down. There is a fire in the belly that informs this work and Pasquinelli said that while the flame is still there, it’s not burning quite as bright.
Pasquinelli Produce Company receives its 70-year anniversary plaque for being aWestern Growers member at the 2017 Annual Meeting
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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2019
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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