Al Baldwin remembers how his father, who was a mailman, volunteered with Big Brothers of America while his mother helped their Catholic church.
When he was 6 years old, his parents encouraged him to share a Christmas toy with a neighbor child who had none.
“This impressed on my mind the importance of sharing with those less fortunate,” he said.
Baldwin, the chief executive of Newport Beach-based Baldwin & Sons, has become well known among Orange County’s nonprofits, having taken leadership roles with Futures for Children, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the City of Hope Construction Industry Alliance, the Stars & Stripes Tournament and many others. Several nonprofits that Baldwin has raised funds for are on the Business Journal’s annual list (see page 14).
Baldwin was the chair of the most successful campaign in the National Park Foundation’s history, raising $550 million for the National Park Service.
He told the Business Journal that his philanthropy is always guided by one question:
“If I get involved with this organization, can I make a meaningful difference?” Baldwin said.
The Kid with Eggs
Born in 1943 in East Los Angeles, Baldwin grew up surrounded by a large, close-knit Irish Catholic family.
“My father was the most moral man I’ve ever known,” he said. “My parents taught me at a young age that I could be anything I set my mind to.”
While growing up, Baldwin would go door to door on Saturday mornings to sell eggs from the chickens he took care of.
“Whatever I sold, I kept,” Baldwin said. “By the time I was 10 years old, I fed 2,000 chickens twice a day, before I went to school and after I got home.
“My mother would say I could always get the chickens to lay better because I’d sing to them as I fed them.”
When a road was built behind the farm, Baldwin’s father spotted an opportunity. His father, who dabbled in carpentry, left the post office and announced they would be homebuilders.
“I remember being out in the front yard and my dad handed us shovels,” Baldwin said. “He had a set of plans from Sunset Magazine and he was going to build a house.”
The family built a home every year or two, doing everything themselves, from framing to finish carpentry. He worked beside his father through high school and into young adulthood.
Ironically, Baldwin had no intention of becoming a builder.
“I planned to be a dentist.”
Realization and Revelation
At 17, an accounting class opened his eyes to the power of finance.
“That’s where I discovered the concept of borrowing money to make money,” he said. Suddenly, his father’s one-house-every-two-years model seemed like the seed of something far larger.
A second revelation came at a fraternity dance in 1963, when he met Deeann Wiezbiski. Instantly captivated, the young couple married a few months later. They were 19. They remained married for 57 years until she passed in 2020. They raised four children: Ron, Steve, Shawn and Allison.
“We had a wonderful life together,” Baldwin said.
He has since remarried and shares a joyful life with his wife, Pamela.
In the early 1970s, Baldwin and his brother Jim took over their father’s company.
Their first major project, a 40-unit condominium, taught them the value of hiring well and daring to think bigger. They expanded into subdivisions, infill neighborhoods and eventually master-planned communities across Orange and San Diego counties.
“It was hard work,” Baldwin said. “People think, ‘Wow, they were lucky.’ To me, luck is seeing an opportunity and being able to recognize it, and then, once you see it, doing something with it.”
Since 1956, Baldwin’s companies, including Pacific Coast Communities and Heritage Building and Development, have built more than 20,000 homes.
The company is now a third-generation firm run day to day by Al Baldwin’s sons Ron, Steve and Shawn.
A Calling to the National Parks
Baldwin’s love of the outdoors began with childhood camping and fishing trips. On one trip to Mammoth, the family pulled off the road near Lone Pine and camped for the night. The next morning, Baldwin woke to a stark scene of broken glass and abandoned buildings. His father explained they were the remnants of Manzanar, the World War II internment camp that imprisoned Americans of Japanese descent.
“I was shocked,” Baldwin recalled. “I could not comprehend why Americans would be put into camps.”
That moment left a lasting impression.
Baldwin told the Business Journal that it’s vital for all parks, including national parks, to reflect the full American story—not just the beautiful landscapes but also the darker chapters.
Today, he works to preserve parks that celebrate America’s beauty and history.
Introduced to the National Park Foundation by friend John Cushman, a founder of Cushman Wakefield, Baldwin joined the board, ultimately becoming its first chairman who wasn’t the sitting Secretary of the Interior, an honor that required amending the organization’s congressional charter. Under his leadership, the foundation expanded from 21 to 110 employees.
One of its major initiatives was the $40 million fundraising campaign to build the Flight 93 Memorial, at the time the largest effort in the foundation’s history.
In 2013, the foundation launched the Centennial Campaign to reach $350 million. By 2018, it exceeded that goal.
Baldwin is proud of the foundation’s work to address the severe housing shortage for National Park staff, whose aging accommodations have long gone underfunded and of helping bring Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home into the National Park Service.
He supported efforts such as wildlife conservation trail rehabilitation and programs like Every Kid in a Park, which provides free park passes to underserved children who may have never visited a national park before.
“One of my goals is to get as many people in our country as possible to visit a national park,” he said. “Many may have never been to a National Park in America. For national parks to survive, the American people must understand their importance. The best way to preserve the American way of life and our democracy is the stories we tell through the national parks.”
Philanthropy and Family
Baldwin has served on the board of the Stars & Stripes Tournament for 28 years. The fundraiser, created by his friend of 40 years, Dick “El Dicko” Gebhard, co-founder, Pinnacle Landscape Management, grew from a small charitable gathering to a one-of-a-kind annual weekend in Cabo San Lucas that brings hundreds of guests together for three days of fishing, golf, music and spirited fundraising for nonprofits including Miracles for Kids, Orangewood, Merge, Young Lives Redeemed, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Building Baja’s Future.
Since its inception in 1996, the Stars & Stripes Tournament has raised more than $40 million. It netted $6 million this year.
“At the start, everyone said the idea of Stars & Stripes wouldn’t work,” Gebhard said. “Al always believed. When Al puts his heart into something, he always makes it better.
“Al believes that he has been lucky in life,” Gebhard said. “Not to give back would be a major sin. He believes it is his moral obligation to give back.”
His son, Shawn, president, Baldwin & Sons, calls Al Baldwin his “North Star.”
“My dad has always encouraged me to treat people with respect, be honest and follow basic decency,” he said.
Longtime friend Ygal Sonenshine of Laguna Beach said when Baldwin gets excited about something, “he throws himself into it completely.”
“He’s generous to his core. A truly charitable man,” he told the Business Journal.
Asked about his legacy, Al Baldwin reflected, “I hope people know me for my love of adventure and that I pursued my dreams. That I put my family first. The way I look at things, success is pursuing our dreams and our passions.”
