Arwin L. “Bud” Mahoney

A love of country, the City of Anaheim and his alma mater has directed this outstanding citizen through a lifetime of leadership and community service.

Bud led his classmates while at Anaheim in student government and sports, his fellow soldiers as a Naval office during WWII, his community as a business man and member of numerous boards, commissions, and as a non-profit volunteer, including a stint as president of the Anaheim’s High Football Booster Club.

Bud is truly a product of the Anaheim school system. Born in 1923 in Anaheim, he attended Horace Mann Elementary, Fremont Junior High and Anaheim High School, where he was freshman class president and student body president in his senior year. After his junior year at AHS, he was selected to the California Boys State in Sacramento and voted in as Attorney General.

Along with leadership skills, Bud excelled at sports. His AHS baseball team won the Sunset League championship for two consecutive years, as did his Colonists football team under coach Richard Glover. The Colonists went on to win the CIF Championship in 1940 in Bud’s senior year.

A player in Coach Glover’s single wing, Bud often rotated passing, blocking and running responsibilities and he excelled in all three. A true team leader, Mahoney was an essential part of Anaheim’s first Sunset League and CIF championship teams. For his outstanding performance on the field, Bud was selected to the All League team.

After high school, Bud went to Central College in Missouri for Naval training. He found his way to the football field again and also made the All Star team for his college team. He then entered Cornell University Midshipman’s School, where he received his commission as a U.S. Naval officer.

As a Naval officer, he spent the next three years aboard ship in the Pacific Ocean and at Pearl Harbor, where he met his wife-to-be, Lu, a Navy W.A.V.E. At the end of the war, the couple married in Hawaii and made their home in Anaheim for the next 52 years.

Back in the states after the war, Bud continued his education at USC. Upon his graduation in 1950, Bud became a well-known building contractor, finally retiring in 1989 after constructing multi homes, restaurants and two churches.

During this time, he and his wife were blessed with two children, sons Mike and Pat, also AHS star athletes and graduates. Pat’s Colonist team earned a place in the CIF finals and won against Santa Ana High in 1967. Pat was named All-CIF for is play at linebacker and later made his career in football, becoming head football coach of Villa Park High School.

While his sons were growing up, Bud became active in the YMCA, serving on its board of directors for two years. He spent much time improving YMCA camping facilities at Camp Osceola in our local mountains. He was also a member of the City of Anaheim Parks & Recreation Commission for five years, serving as its chairman for two of those years. He was also an active member of the Anaheim Arts Council and a member of the Anaheim Lions Club.

Along with all of that, he also coached his sons’ Pop Warner football teams and later became Anaheim High’s Football Booster Club president for three years.

Bud passed away July 1, 2016, in Santa Maria, where he and his wife had moved to be closer to their children.