William G. Valenzuela, founder and chairman of W.G. Valenzuela Drywall & Paint Inc., died Sunday at Northwest Medical Center of complications from a lung condition. He was 79.
Valenzuela was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome last month, said Richard Baxter, his son-in-law.
He had won scores of community-service awards, including 1998 Man of the Year from the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and 2004 Man of the Year from the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. In 2002, Hispanic Business magazine listed W.G. Valenzuela Drywall among the top 500 Latino-owned businesses in the country.
Valenzuela was born March 8, 1933, in Tucson but spent much of his childhood on the Sopori Ranch in Arivaca, a ranch his father worked planting produce and training racehorses, said Cindy Arino, Valenzuela's daughter.
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The family moved to Tucson for the schools for Valenzuela and his 11 siblings. Valenzuela went to Ochoa and Drachman elementary schools, Wakefield Junior High and Tucson High. Once he completed 10th grade, he enlisted in the Marine Reserves in 1950 and served in Korea.
When he returned to Tucson, he married Celina Otero, whom he met at Wakefield. The couple would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary next month, said Arino.
Valenzuela worked as a carpenter's apprentice in Silverbell and then as a drywaller in San Manuel before he founded W.G. Valenzuela Drywall in 1979, Arino said.
The business brought in revenues of $3.4 million in 1994, growing to $27 million in 2006, when it had 350 employees, Arino said.
Since the recession, the drywall business now employs 120 and brings in $8 million a year in revenues, said Arino.
She said her father also founded a paint company and merged it with the drywall business in 1998.
In addition to his wife, Celina, and his daughter Arino, Valenzuela is survived by his son, Roy Valenzuela; daughters Elva Dillavou, Debbie Baxter and Shelley Cordova; 17 grandchildren; and 12 great grandchildren.
The rosary will be recited at 5 p.m. Wednesday, with visitation from 5 to 8 p.m., both at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 8650 N. Shannon Road. Services will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the church, and burial will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@azstarnet.com or 573-4104.