At 95 years old, Sal Digirolamo has given much of his life in the service of making Norco a better place to live – a place everyone can be proud to call home.
Toward that goal, in 1996 he and eight others formed the Norco Civic Association, with Digirolamo its first president.
As to what inspired him to take action? He credits his sister, Sadie.
“She’s 101 years old now,” Digirolamo said. “I would always go visit her, and she’d tell me, ‘Sal, we need a voice. We have a nice community. We have a lot of industry here. We deserve more than we get. We need an organization, a voice to speak for us.’”
Digirolamo retired from his post as NCA president in 2019, but his legacy in Norco is set in stone. The association recently honored him for his contributions, and over the years he was a positive force for the community he called home for almost his entire life.
“I was three when we moved there,” Digirolamo said. “I saw Norco grow from a town with really nothing to one that’s a pretty nice place to live.”
Digirolamo recently celebrated his 95th birthday, which happened to coincide with the 95th anniversary of Shell in Norco, where he worked for many years, following in the footsteps of his father.
Organizing the association wasn’t as hard as one might think, Digirolamo said. It turned out that once he and his community neighbors began asking around, there were plenty of people who shared their sentiment that a local voice was needed.
“My good friend Ronald St. Pierre (who served as the NCA’s first vice president) got me into the whole thing. He was my mentor – a wonderful, wonderful mentor and a first-class guy,” Digirolamo said. “He guided me … it wasn’t hard. The only thing I wasn’t enthused about was being the president, but somebody had to do it, so I took it. I think (creating the NCA) was a good thing for Norco.”
For almost 25 years he served as president, and Digirolamo earned the affectionate moniker within the community of the unofficial “Mayor of Norco.
Stephen Weber, who succeeded Digirolamo as the NCA’s president, said Digirolamo has been a persistent and powerful force for the community.
“He’s essentially the reason we have a civic association,” Weber said. “He was that driving force. I don’t know how he did what he did, to be honest. He was amazing. Even when he started getting up in age, he kept up with everything in the parish council, read the minutes, kept on top of everything … Sal’s always been the true Mayor of Norco.
“Everything he did, all the steps he took, were all made with the question in mind of ‘Is this best for Norco?’”
Digirolamo said it was simply a matter of making sure the community’s voice was heard.
“Going before the council and talking at many of the meetings … four, five, six of us would go and voice our opinion on what we’re getting and what we’re not getting,” he said
“And there’s strength in that.”
The Norco Civic Association started the Handy Man Committee, which provides services to those in need, such as handicap ramps and small home repairs, and a beautification committee that handles upkeep of flower beds, installs seasonal banners and more. It re-established the Norco Christmas Parade.
“Those are things that started with Sal,” Weber said. “From contacting planning and zoning, trying to keep Norco as a place people are proud to live in, monitoring those things … anything that we do today, in some way began with Sal. When we joke and say things like Sal is the Mayor of Norco, in all actuality he dedicated his life to Norco.”
He did it because, Digirolamo says, Norco is a special place.
“The people (make it special),” he said. “We’re like one big family. If one gets sick, we all got sick. It’s a close-knit community. It was always an honor to be able to represent Norco because we were such a tight unit, and so together.”
