Bob Habel, 2nd Vice President

Bob Habel was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to Torrance in 1993.  He is a die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan and rumor has it, he has over 200 shirts featuring his beloved football and hockey teams and the City of Pittsburgh itself!!

Bob worked for the Torrance Unified School District for 17 years as a Materials Support Technician and one of his jobs was delivering the TUSD mail to many schools.  During his time with TUSD, he was honored as a TUSD Employee of the Year.

Although he was not a Board member of the Torrance Education Foundation, Bob hung and removed all of the TEF and SBEA banners at every Torrance Unified School from 2011 to 2022!!

His very first volunteer job after he retired from TUSD was spending his Fridays delivering food to Title I schools for the Volunteer Center’s Food for Kids program, which he still supports.

Bob was a Board member of the Torrance Rose Float Association for 16 years and served as Director of Logistics, which meant he attended every event involving TRFA.  He was in four Tournament of Roses Parades: first he walked the five and one-half mile Parade route beside the City of Torrance float dressed as a jester, twice he served as the observer on the Torrance Float, and also rode on the City’s Salute to Torrance’s Centennial in 2012.

Bob served as a City of Torrance Traffic Commissioner for 8 years.  In June of 2023, he was appointed to the Torrance Parks and Recreation Commission.

He served as a member of the Torrance Refinery Citizens Advisory Panel for 4 years.  

Bob has been a volunteer every Tuesday and Saturday at the Torrance Certified Farmers’ Market since 2015.  He checks in all of the vendors for each Market and serves as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny each year.  The Farmer’s Market Manager, Joyce Chen says that Bob seems to know everyone, and everyone seems to know him!

In 2017, he began volunteering for the Torrance Police Department.  Now he volunteers for them two days a week.  One of the days, he goes to TPD after spending 5 hours at Farmers Market!