CyberFair 2000 Project
Main School
Carpinteria, California, USA

Carpinteria Valley Leaders
Government
Environment
School
Business
Arts & Entertainment
Sports & Recreation
Medical
Community Services

About This Site
Who Made This Site?
Why an Avocado Tree?
Project Narrative Information Sources

Ted Rhodes - A Community Activist

By Katie H. and Camille R.

"If you are willing to work hard enough and you really believe in something you can make a difference. You can make the world a better place to live."  ...... Ted Rhodes

	We chose to interview Ted Rhodes because we think he is a big part of Carpinteria. Ted has been the leader in helping the people of Carpinteria to buy the bluffs. The bluffs are a very beautiful part of Carpinteria that the people purchased through direct donations.
Ted with a Night Time Picture of the Bluffs by Arturo Tello

Ted's full name is Edgar Bond Rhodes. He grew up in Pasadena. His Grandmother came to Pasadena in 1905 and his other grandmother came to California in 1929. He was named after his father's uncle. His father's uncle, Edgar Goodspeed, was a very famous biblical scholar that translated the Bible. He has two brothers and a sister and lots of first cousins. Some of his family still lives in Pasadena.  Ted has a wife, Joan, and two children.

Ted was a publisher of a community newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he was involved in the poverty program, which was a government program to help people that were less fortunate. It was the "War on Poverty" program.

When Ted moved back to California, he began working as a free-lance grip in the film business down in Hollywood, eventually becoming a Key Grip. A Key Grip is the head of the Grip Department on film productions.  Grips help with lighting and shadows. They put things in front of the lights to change the quality of  the lighting and they do camera moves.  For example, often the camera has to move with the action when the actor walks across the room.  Some of the movies he has worked on are Beetle Juice, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Dennis the Menace, Baby's Days Off and George of the Jungle. He also works on rock videos. He has had cameras on the surf, on elevators, on skateboards, motorcycles, trucks, fire trucks, outside of cars, bicycles and on different kinds of boats. 

He is not working as much in the Grip business right now because he has spent a lot of his time involved in the acquisition of the bluffs. There are close to 3,000 people that have helped buy the bluffs.  He was the person who tried to make the project go in the right direction and helped keep people's energies focused. 

 You can email Ted at TRhodes@Silcom.com

This page was written by Camille R.
This page was edited by Katie H.
This page was photographed by Camille R.

View more Environment Leaders