Santa Ana : Godinez Honored for Ground-Breaking Career

Hector G. Godinez, manager of a U.S. Postal Service district with 20,000 employees, was presented with an Honored Citizen Card on Wednesday by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, an honor previously reserved for former presidents and bishops.

Supervisor Roger Stanton made the award at a luncheon in Godinez’s honor given by the Hispanic Affairs Council of the Greater Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce. Godinez is manager of the Postal Service’s Sequoia District, an irregularly shaped area that stretches from Orange County’s southern boundary to Mammoth Mountain.

A succession of speakers came to the podium to praise Godinez for his work in helping to guide Santa Ana’s sizable Latino population into the mainstream of Orange County society. Besides Stanton, Clara Nava, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Mayor Daniel E. Griset and spokesmen for the chamber, the postal district and state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) expressed their appreciation to Godinez.

Godinez’s daughter, Linda Miller, also addressed the gathering, recalling her father’s achievements in the face of racial discrimination and other obstacles.

In 1976, Godinez served as the chamber’s first Latino president and in 1982 as the Hispanic Affairs Council’s first president. Jerry Wolf, chairman of the chamber, noted that under Godinez’s leadership, the chamber moved from a white male bastion to a group open to everyone.

A graduate of Santa Ana High School and a veteran of World War II, he began his postal career in 1946 as a postal carrier and during the 1950s attended Santa Ana College at night.

Godinez was named postmaster of Santa Ana in 1965, county regional manager in 1965, acting postmaster of Los Angeles in 1975 and district manager of Southern California a year later.