This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/odZ.2ACIB/540 Message Board Post: Julio Gonzales, a champion of young Hispanics who was honored for his outreach work as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, has died. He was 86. Mr. Gonzales died Dec. 5 at a Long Beach hospice of causes related to aging, said his son, Steven. Mr. Gonzales was honored three years ago by the LAPD and then-Mayor Richard Riordan as the department ' s " Latino ambassador of good will " for improving relations between police and Hispanics in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Clifton, Ariz., and raised in East Los Angeles, Mr. Gonzales joined the police department in 1947. He worked briefly as a patrolman and at the city jail before joining the Training Division at the Police Academy in Chavez Ravine, now the location of Dodger Stadium. It was there that he began reaching out to the community ' s children. " We used to see kids come up to the fence in hot weather and look in at our pool, " he said at his retirement from the LAPD in 1967. " Under my supervision, we allowe! d them to swim and use the ball diamond. " Mr. Gonzales also organized after-school gatherings, using academy classrooms for youth clubs, and staged sporting events, dances and social programs for the local youth. In 1967, Mr. Gonzales was appointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan to the board of the California Youth Authority. He served two four-year terms. In 1982, President Reagan named Mr. Gonzales to the position of U.S. marshal for the Los Angeles-based Central District, in charge of a staff of 50 for the area ' s federal courts. He retired in 1988. Besides his son, Mr. Gonzales is survived by his wife, Julie. Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 12/16/2003. (volunteer submission)