Juan Gonzalez, a longtime resident of Camarillo, CA passed away peacefully on Friday, March 5th at the age of 80. He was surrounded by his wife, sons and faithful dog.

Juan is survived by his wife Marcella, his twin sons David and Eric, and his faithful dog, Elmo. 

In addition to his immediate family, Juan is survived by ten loving siblings, an amazing loving caring; extended family, and a close group of friends that he has maintained over long distances and time. He will also be missed by countless people, whose life he touched, throughout his life.

Juan was a grammarian whose knowledge of English, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Italian mixed together to create an unidentifiable accent. As a result of his passion, he authored several books, including textbooks to teach English and Spanish that helped many be able to successfully overcome their fear of learning a new language. He is well known among his friends for his prolific writings and meanderings on the meaning of life. Many of his writings, written in the past and read now, give comfort to his family that he is at peace and lived a life filled with passion and purpose. 

If written as a screen play, Juan’s life would be made into an Oscar winning film. Juan grew up in a small rural modest town in Jalisco Mexico.He was the oldest son and second oldest of 16 children. His sons would hear stories of his adventures on the farm, including making friends with the pigs and playing foot races with his siblings in the fields. Juan loved watching and following Mexican soccer especially his beloved Chivas. As a young man Juan was known for being a very talented soccer player who was offered the opportunity to try out for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. A frequent comment heard by his family while watching soccer was “I played soccer with that player’s father.” 

Juan was very proud of where he came from.  He spoke about and never forgot his roots. He was grateful to have grown up in a healthy environment that was surrounded by beautiful people, nature, skies and plants.  He often connected to his roots by visiting farms and parks, as well as taking long walks and hikes throughout his beloved Ventura County.  He carefully tended to his garden and took time to appreciate every tree, flower, and fruit that came from his labor.  He marveled at the sunsets that the skies produced at the end of the day.

Juan entered the seminary at the young age of 14 and was ordained a priest. There he quickly gained the friendship and respect of his peers; he was well known for his strong soccer goals and for being the go-to person to explain a difficult class topic.

As a priest, he presided at his first mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Juan was a charismatic and outgoing man. His dedication and engaging sermons would turn attendance from a handful of attendees to a standing- room only crowd in a matter of months. He continued his active ministry for 10 years before requesting and obtaining a papal dispensation to step away from an active priesthood to become a lay servant of his beloved Roman Catholic Church Community. He did his best and succeeded at leading an exemplary life.

At the age of 35 Juan came to Los Angeles and fell in love with his future wife, Marcella. In his writings, Juan wrote of Marcella as his rock and thanked her for her love, dedication, and energy for allowing him to live a successful life. Juan was a loving, dedicated, faithful and dependable husband who stopped at nothing to support Marcella and their sons’ dreams and aspirations. The two were blessed to be married for 44 years.

Juan and his wife moved to Ventura County in 1980, where he went to work in the Insurance Industry in servicing accounts. He quickly saw a need for laborers and employers to work together and establish a cooperative approach to preventing accidents and controlling loses. From there on out he worked with companies in creating and implementing safety & loss prevention programs. His charismatic presentations were instrumental in educating laborers, encouraging peer and management teamwork and reducing injuries in the workplace. He then went on to become a producer with the sales team, where he continued his practice of providing excellent customer service to Companies. His focus on personal and unconditional service to his clients quickly was what led him to great success. He was legendary at working endlessly, with great success, to reduce loses and premiums for the companies he worked with. His clients always knew he was a phone call away to quickly take care of any need they had. He did this in a timely manner with a great positive, helpful attitude.


Together, Juan and Marcella had twin sons. Juan was a dedicated father who made sure to always be present in his sons’ lives. He was there to take them to sports practices, speech tournaments, lessons and very early morning skate boarding practices. He did this all the while passing to his sons all the important life lessons he had learned throughout his life. Then as his sons grew older, into adulthood, he wrote to them to let them know he was in awe of them and inspired by the life lessons they had given him!