2023 EMax Award recipient: Les Gin

Readers have voted, and the recipient of this year’s Ernie Maxwell Community Spirit Award is Leslie Moon Gin. The award recognizes those who, through their own tangible effect on the community, represent EMax’s own spirit of community and volunteerism, and inspire others to join in.

Les came to Idyllwild after a long career in banking in Tucson and Phoenix, but got his bachelor’s degree in finance, business administration and real estate from Point Loma University in San Diego. Beginning at 22 as a loan officer, he worked for a number of local and regional banks and served as vice president at Valley National Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. He was the founding president of the first Asian bank in Arizona.

He is no newcomer to community service; In addition to working with numerous Asian and Pacific island local groups, in 1982 he founded the Pan Asian Community Alliance to unite the Asian communities in Tucson. At the top of his game, he was sitting on 16 boards concurrently. In Idyllwild, he tried “retirement” and that lasted about two years. “Overrated,” he said.

The Crier called Les and spoke with him this week. He and his wife, Holly Parsons, were surprised and delighted to be recognized by the community. It should be noted that the two of them speak as one, with one completing the other’s thoughts, and lots of laughter. Les sometimes refers to her as his “publicist” or “manager.”

TC: Your involvement with local groups includes being a director of Idyllwild Water District and Idyllwild Community Center, and membership in the Art Alliance and Rotary. Are there others we should know about?

LG: Mountain Community Patrol volunteering to help the sheriff … and I’m with Mountain Community Mutual Aid; we do the food bank. I take care of the excess food. I may end up with potatoes, carrots … I go to the local restaurants and distribute it to the cooks and service workers, not the owners. The food bank distributes noon to 2 p.m. and the workers can’t make it. I also drop off for the American Legion.

We have another food bank, first Tuesday of the month, called Feed America, at Town Hall. They have a farmers market in Hemet, Bautista Creek Farms, and they donate what is left over. Every Friday, after 2 o’clock, for the last three years I do that, pick it up. We store it. The Brewpub donates space in their walk-in fridge. This adds produce to the boxes. Feed America just had canned goods and dry goods. This adds another dimension, gives recipients fresh produce. Because of the generosity of Bautista Creek Farms.

HP: Les has a history in the grocery business. His family owned a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. He was at the cash register from about the age of 6. He didn’t speak any English yet, but he knew the name of everything in the store. He went into banking. However, he’s happiest when he’s moving food around this town.

LG: Making a difference.

HP: He’s aware that he is representing a diverse community himself. That’s one of the reasons why he does it.

LG: I worked all the way up to bank president; one of the first Asian-American bank presidents in the U.S. Always I got the question: “Where are you from?”

TC: Tucson, Arizona?

LG: Born, native American.

HP: He gave a speech at Rotary two years ago about “micro-aggression” and the forms in which it can happen to minorities in a community.

LG: Not just Chinese; Asian, Indigenous. I am fortunate that I am in positions where I am able to do these things.

Les shared this speech with the Crier. It includes a moving retelling of his family’s story; 25 generations in one village; his parents-to-be, youngsters uprooted by war, coming to Tucson, resolved to succeed and be good members of the community. His father died when Les was 11, and his mother worked tirelessly in the family grocery, drilling into her son’s head the customer serviced mantra, “Make everybody feel welcome.” The speech describes the stereotyping he has experienced in his own life with a sense of humor and serious purpose, and fleshes out his seemingly insatiable desire to become involved in organizations, to serve and connect people.

TC: What has Idyllwild meant to you?

LG: Just a magical place, very spiritual. We’ve got four seasons here. I was accepted; it is a warm and accepting community.

TC: How did you find this place?

HP: He was looking at property, and asked, “Where is Idyllwild?” We both went to college in San Diego but had never heard of it. We were starved for beauty and greenery and nature from all that time in Phoenix. We found it right out of the gate, the first place we went to and the place we stayed. We didn’t even look at Big Bear. We did not know how to live on a mountain in a forest. It’s been an exciting and adventurous learning curve that we love. We were both city slickers. Now we’re mountain folk. We are so brave now. We just leased a house high up on the mountain, tucked in under the Ernie Maxwell Trail. We’re both such extremists we just go with it.

TC: Looking forward to being buried in the snow?

LG: Exactly. That’s what our friends say. We’ll thaw out in March.

TC: You seem to think as one. How long have you been together?

LG: 11 years; friends for six before that. Married a year ago, here in Idyllwild.

TC: You were also publishers of Idyllwild Life Magazine?

HP: Yes. We felt like we wanted to try our hand at expanding the profile of what Idyllwild is all about through this glossy publication. Then, when COVID came around, I became very sensitized to the fact that the magazine was bringing a lot of tourism to the Hill. We were delivering about 10,000 copies into our demographic in San Diego. We just wrapped it up with a third issue. We sold the magazine to a guy who put out one issue and let it go.

TC: That must have been a lot of work.

HP: We did have a couple of guest editors. It was a labor of love, but it was a lot.

TC: Any closing thoughts?

LG: I want to thank Idyllwild for the opportunity to serve. Rotary’s motto is, “Service above self.” We mean it.