BOB FORD

As a police officer, Ford's perspective on youth led him to volunteer and then direct the San Francisco Police Department's Youth Fishing Program. "We just want a chance to steer kids in the right direction," he said.

In 25 years, he helped introduce thousands of youngsters, many of them disadvantaged, to fishing, and in the process provided a window where they could see a better way of life. Trips ventured out the Golden Gate for salmon and to Lake Merced for trout.

He also volunteered to help turn the therapy pool each year at Shriners Hospital For Children into a trout pond so physically challenged young people could catch a fish and have a brighter day. Ford is also an avid outdoorsman whose adventures have taken him across North America from Mexico to Alaska on world-class adventures.

Among thousands of trips, he has caught giant salmon and halibut in Alaska, marlin, tuna and dorado off Mexico, and grouper in Florida, and has dived for lobster in the Caribbean.