After decades as what friends jokingly called a “charity czar,” Past Club President Tim Hornbecker plans to retire at the end of the year, but continue as President of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Rotary Club of San Francisco that manages the endowment dedicated to the financial support of our service projects.
Tim was born in LA, where he graduated from Loyola, a Jesuit high school, then received a football scholarship to the University of Colorado, where he played “linebacker on steroids.” He dropped out of school to take care of his sick mother in LA, where he worked as a film technician and developer, “following in my mother’s footsteps.” One of his aunts played opposite Jackie Cooper in the Our Gang comedies, but all three sisters were in the Our Gang group.
As “the fourth son in an Irish family,” Tim entered the Paulist Fathers and spent five years in Baltimore and Washington, DC. “It was a calling I felt,” he says. “I had worked with the Red Cross as a volunteer and with the Sisters of Social Service in the inner city.” As a seminarian, he worked for two years as a chaplain’s assistant in the amputee ward at Walter Reed Army Hospital, which he calls “probably the experience of my life, because I learned more from the Vietnam vets than I could ever give them. They were brutally honest.”
Tim left the seminary and went to Catholic University in Washington, DC, earning a degree in the philosophy of religion, then taught in an inner city Catholic elementary school on Capitol Hill and began working with people with disabilities. His career then took him to Portland, OR, where he served for 16 years as executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in charge of 600 volunteers, a soup kitchen and food bank program, rehabilitation centers, and nine thrift stores, which is what earned him the “charity czar” moniker. During his time in Portland, he helped start the Catholic Worker House, whose volunteers ran a soup kitchen.
Then it was off to Spokane, WA, where he earned a master’s degree in public administration at Gonzaga. His next career change took him to The Arc, first of Palm Desert, then Seattle and San Francisco, The Arc of California and now The Arc of Alameda County. He plans to retire at the end of the year, when his term on the board of The Arc of the United States ends. Tim’s wife, Pat, previously served on The Arc’s national board and as president of the boards of The Arc of San Francisco and The Arc of California, which she currently serves as secretary. Tim and Pat live in San Francisco.
He calls Pat’s son, Joseph, who has developmental disabilities, “my inspiration” and says “he keeps me working in my field.” In addition to Joseph and Pat’s three other children, Tim has a son and a daughter and three stepchildren from two previous marriages and 4.5 “wonderful grandchildren.” He keeps in shape with golf, yoga and walking two miles a day. He also plays blues harmonica “with a few bands” and used to play the banjo with a bluegrass band. He and Pat also like to travel.
Tim first joined the Rotary Club of East Portland in 1982 and joined Rotary clubs wherever he moved, including Palm Desert, Seattle and San Francisco. He was attracted to Rotary, because it put family, career and faith first, then service to the Club. “It was the first Club I found that put those priorities first, and I liked the concept.” Tim and his family hosted Rotary Exchange Students for five years, and he was impressed with the international aspect and that Rotary included leaders in the community and had opened up to women. His service to Rotary has extended from sergeant-at-arms to secretary to treasurer to community service chair. During his year as president of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, 2010-11, he focused on such youth programs as Camp Enterprise (now RYLA), Interact and Rotaract, and introduced the Thanksgiving lunch at The Arc and Salvation Army, which he says “is always close to my heart.”
After several years on the board of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation, Tim assumed the presidency of the board on July 1. The foundation has raised $1.5 million over the years and done well with investments and will distribute $140,000-150,000 in grants this year to fund projects recommended by Club members, including Emergency Services Day, RYLA, World Wide Rotary Day, Interact and Rotaract, Alliance for Smiles and Rotaplast, the recent Bike Build, Heroes Voices, Thanksgiving at The Arc and Salvation Army, the Dictionary Project, Roots of Peace, the Homeless Prenatal Project, Homeless Connect, and water projects in developing countries. Tim says the Foundation board is especially interested in funding projects “that provide opportunities for members to volunteer.”
That sounds like plenty to keep him busy, even after he retires at the end of the year.