Public memorial to be held for Rod Diridon Sr. in San Jose
A public memorial for Rod Diridon Sr., considered the father of modern transit in Silicon Valley, will be held June 25 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.
Diridon, a former Santa Clara County Supervisor and executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State, died April 3 at age 87. He is survived by his wife, Gloria Duffy, two children, Rod Jr. and Mary Margaret, and four grandchildren.
Duffy, CEO of the Commonwealth Club of California, said there had been initial hopes to have a celebration of Diridon’s life in May, but the later date was chosen to accommodate the schedules of many people who wanted to attend. The memorial will begin at 2 p.m. at the Civic, 135 W. San Carlos St.
Diridon was a native of Dunsmuir, Calif. His father, Claude Diridon, who worked in the railroad business in Dunsmuir when Rod was a boy, had changed his name from Claudius Diridoni because of bigotry in the industry. Still, the younger Diridon worked as a railroad brakeman and fireman to pay for Shasta Junior College and Chico State before he transferred to San Jose State, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He served two combat tours in Vietnam as a U.S. Naval officer., pausing his tour of duty only once to marry Mary Ann Fudge in 1964.
Diridon was only 32 years old when he was elected to the Saratoga City Council in 1971, and he toppled a 14-year incumbent three years later to become the youngest person elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, where he served for the next 20 years. He campaigned for the county's first half-cent sales tax for transit while he was on the Board of Supervisors, led the charge to create VTA's light-rail system and chaired the study that led to Caltrain commuter service.
He fought to save the historic train station on Cahill Avenue in San Jose after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The station was renamed in his honor when he left the Board of Supervisors in 1994. He was the founding president of the nonprofit San Jose Trolley Corporation, now known as the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation. Its trolley barn at History Park in San Jose is also named after Diridon.
His first marriage ended in 1999, and he married Duffy — a former Deputy Assistant Undersecretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton — in 2001. Diridon became the founding executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute, a think tank named for his longtime friend, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, until he retired from that position in 2014. Raising awareness about climate change was also one of his passions, and he regularly spoke to groups and led initiatives about the issue.
He served as president of the Rotary Club of San Jose in 2009-2010, and Herb Ritter — district governor for Rotary District 5170 — recently announced a new award to recognize climate change champions would be named in Diridon’s honor. In keeping with the environmental theme, the award itself will be made of wood instead of plastic.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 12:09 PM.