This, in a way, is the beginning of Edward J. Morales’ story.
Anna Martinez was working at Schireson Brothers music store in Los Angeles when Jesus Morales walked in with a mind to buy a stereo. He made several trips to the store, not yet convinced about such a large purchase. But he was decisive about Anna. He asked her out, and she said yes.
This is where their stories deviate, says their son, this year’s president and chairman of the board of the 2025 Tournament of Roses Association.
“My mom would say, ‘Your father made the best deal of his life that day,’ and my dad would say ‘The owner gave me a big discount if I took her out with me.’”
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Morales remembers his parents that way, easy to laugh, hard-working and caring.
They would raise four children in San Gabriel for the 30 years they were married. Jesus Morales (the “J” in his oldest son’s name is in his honor) died of leukemia in 1988. He was 56. His wife would live another 32 years, enough time to see her son an accomplished lawyer and community volunteer, and to hold a granddaughter named “Jessica Rose” in honor of both her grandfathers.
In looking over his catalog of “Best Days Ever,” his chosen theme, Morales said the things that are the best to remember are sometimes the simplest: meeting a woman gazing up at the Rose Parade floats one pre-dawn morning in 1999 and discovering she was Shirley Temple Black; helping an abuelita find medical help after one parade; having strangers thank him for putting on the parade. (It must have been the red jacket, Morales said, who is quick to note he is only one of more than 900 Tournament of Roses volunteers.)
The day Morales assumed the top job planning the 136th Rose Parade and 111th Rose Bowl game is the culmination of 32 years of volunteerism, another such moment. Before that, he had served with the Pasadena Optimist Club and was on the Foundation Board for the California School of the Arts. Morales also is a former board member of the social service agency Foothill Family Services and Hathaway-Sycamores.
His alma maters include Don Bosco Technical Institute in Rosemead, UCLA and Loyola Law School.
“Ihope this New Year’s Day could be the beginning of many best days ever in 2025.”– Ed Morales, Tournament of Roses president
While leading the Pasadena Jaycees, he met his wife Lisa, whom he married in 1997, and community service became a pillar of their life. Humor grounds them, too. Lisa teases her husband that he introduced himself to her four times, thinking they hadn’t yet met. In the myriad public events leading up to New Year’s, in all their Tournament travels, they are a solid twosome.
The Moraleses live in Pasadena and have two children: Lainey, 21, a student at Arizona State University in Tempe and Jessie, 19, who attends Emerson College in Boston.
For them, he feels the gravity of being the second Latino president of the Tournament of Roses. They know the story of how their ancestors came to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1912s and 1950s. They see how he takes care of family.
Lainey said she most admires her father’s “can-do attitude, and how he always pushes me to do things even if I don’t believe in myself. He does.”
Jessie sees their father’s drive, commitment to others, and willingness to make time.
“Balancing a career and what feels like a full-time volunteer job, while also serving as a caretaker for family beyond his household, he probably feels like he has zero time left over in his day, but he always picks up the phone when I call,” they said.
All four of them will be riding a 1911 Rambler Model 65 for the two-and-a-half-hour drive down Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day. It will be a high point of a year of preparation, including Morales’ choice of tennis legend and equity advocate Billie Jean King as grand marshal. (“She is a legend, period,” he said. “A positive influence in the world.”)
When he thinks about his definition of success, Morales said “I think of my parents and my grandmother Sara. No one said, ‘Ed, you need to become a lawyer, but nobody also said that you can’t. The emphasis was always on being a good person and being kind to others.”
Just being a good person, helping where you can and giving what you can doesn’t come with much fanfare and pageantry, but it underpins the belief of this Tournament of Roses president. That, and an unbound optimism for the stories a New Year can bring.
“The only place in the world you can watch the world’s best parade and the world’s best bowl game is in Pasadena on January first, so I hope everyone comes out, tunes in or streams our beautiful festivities on that day,” Morales said. “And I hope this New Year’s Day could be the beginning of many best days ever in 2025.”