Rotary’s Bond
“You don’t do it halfway.” – Allen Bond
Allen Bond, a 58-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes resident, has witnessed countless ribbon-cutting ceremonies on the Hill over the last two decades.
Recently named 2015 Volunteer of the Year by Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and incoming president for Peninsula Rotary Club, the father of four is a dedicated servant of the community.
“My attitude is, anything you do, you don’t do it halfway,” Bond said. “Not just showing up for the picture at the end, but you’ve got to do the work in between.”
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Bond moved to California after graduating from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in computer science. A serious tennis player since age 13, he attended the university on a tennis scholarship. After graduating from school, he played tennis on professional satellite tours and participated in many tournaments throughout the East Coast while teaching on the side. In 1981, at age 23, he made the big move to California after visiting an old friend in Santa Monica and feeling sold on the Pacific coast.
“I just kind of landed here,” Bond said. “I came to California with no job and no place to live.”
He had vowed to quit teaching tennis upon his fresh start on the West Coast and put his accounting degree to use. He had always been a “numbers guy,” he said. But his prowess on the court is what landed him his first job and introduced him to the Palos Verdes Peninsula community.
At the Peninsula Racquet Club, which sits atop the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes and overlooks the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Islands, he became a full-time instructor for adults and children alike. The young man settled in Redondo Beach and continued the teaching job for about seven years. By the end of the seven years, he moved into a small condo in Lunada Bay.
“I still play tennis at the Racquet Club about once a week and teach a little bit,” Bond said. “I’ve only taught there, and played there, pretty much my whole time in California. I still have friends I met when I first got here in ’81, and we still play tennis. We’re a little bit older now.”
In 1988, when the opportunity presented itself to work for a small mortgage business in Lawndale, Bond left the full-time post at the club and jumped onboard.
“It seemed to be a pretty good vocation,” he said. “I enjoyed numbers and I enjoyed people.”
Through mutual friends, he met his wife Wendy, who was in a similar line of business. In 1991, she founded a mortgage banking company called Palos Verdes Funding Group, and in 1993, Bond joined his wife’s company, which was stationed at Malaga Cove Plaza for a number of years, then moved to Silver Spur Road. They raised their four children — Mellissa, Matthew and twins Alexander and Colin — through the Palos Verdes Peninsula school system, where Bond coached their baseball, basketball and soccer teams in the true fashion of a Palos Verdes parent.
In 2006, the business was sold to Countrywide Mortgage, which was later bought out by Bank of America. At Countrywide, Bond worked as a retail sales manager for home loans.
Today, he works for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage as a retail sales supervisor at the office on Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates and in El Segundo. His wife Wendy founded an independent escrow company called Guaranty Escrow, which has offices in Rolling Hills Estates, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach.
“Even though mortgage is mortgages, you’re dealing with a different personal situation with every transaction, so it’s interesting in that light,” Bond said. “Hopefully I can help them or advise them on situations and how they can better their situation financially, and most importantly on the purchase side, to get someone in the home they want, their dream home. It’s extremely gratifying to do that.”
Bond is the quintessential Palos Verdes volunteer. In addition to being an active member of the Peninsula Rotary for over 20 years (he will take over as president this coming July), he has been involved in the Peninsula Chamber for nearly the same length of time, and this is his seventh year on the board. He has previously chaired the Chamber membership committee and special events committee.
“Twenty years ago, it was a lot more casual — it was a lot more about getting together with your friends,” Bond said.
As chairperson in 2014, he oversaw programs such as the Young Entrepreneur Academy, a yearlong Chamber-sponsored after school program for middle and high school students who generate business ideas, conduct market research, write business plans, make pitches and launch their own companies. His main focus was to continue the tradition of the Peninsula’s tight-knit business community by helping to forge relationships.
“I really try to work within the chamber to help people, especially new businesses, to meet other old businesses and whatever people they’re gonna work well with that will create a good synergy and for them to be successful,” said Bond, who volunteers to MC at most events.
He said that over the last two decades, he has observed great changes for businesses on the Hill, namely the addition of Terranea, the new open shopping area of the Promenade on the Peninsula and renovations at the Peninsula Center. The Chamber will continue to encourage residents to shop local and bring regionally attractive businesses to the Hill, he said, but overall they’re headed in the right direction.
“As far as people coming in, I think it’s real positive,” he said. “It’s a good influx of the kind of people that will continue to enjoy PV and keep moving forward the way it is.” PEN
