Rotary District 5170

Gary was born in 1951 in San Jose and raised on his grandfather’s ranch.  He started working with his parents at the age of nine by helping run a floral stand on the weekend while attending school.  After graduating from Archbishop Mitty High School in 1969, Gary became involved in the family business on a full time basis.  As he needed more knowledge Gary attended night school at West Valley College for accounting and business.  He also attended various extension classes in floristry at Cal Poly and classes in Psychology at Santa Clara University.

Gary has served on many non profit boards including, San Jose Medical Hospital Foundation, Catholic Charities, Santa Clara County Boy Scouts, Rotacare Free Clinics, Archbishop Mitty Alumni.  He has also been a member of Serra Club; a Catholic organization that promotes family morals and daily living, the San Francisco Bay Area Florist, the Italian American Heritage, the California State Floral Association, the Santa Clara County Floral Association, and at the age of twenty-one he served on the advisory board of directors in northern California for Teleflora, which is the largest floral wire service in the world.

Gary has received several community awards including his club’s Rotarian of the Year award, District 5170 Rotary’s World Community Service award, Archbishop Mitty High School Outstanding Alumni award, and from Boy Scouts both the “Award of Merit” and the ‘Silver Beaver” awards.

The Citti family has received several awards and recognition for their company’s dedication to service to their local community. Citti’s Florist has been recognized in the floral world with the “Top 100-member” award by FTD and the “Top 50-member” award from Teleflora.  Citti’s Florist was recognized as the “Top Florist for 2007” by the Metro Newspaper, the “Best Florist for 2007” by the Wave newspaper and the “Best of the Best Florist for 2007” by the San Jose Mercury Newspaper.  The Citti family is also the recipient of the “Hope’s Family of the Year Award” and a family “Resolution Award” from the Senate of California.

Gary was the head coach for the Mitty High School roller hockey team 1999-2001.  His team brought the first countywide championship to the school in Division II. His hobbies include coin collecting, stamp collecting, gardening and his passion to play as much golf as possible.

Gary has been a member of Santa Clara Rotary for over twenty-eight years.  He and his entire family are Paul Harris members.  He was instrumental in creating the District 5170 web site and has served on several club and district committees.  Gary chaired the “Centennial District Conference” and chaired the “Rotary Day at Great America” which brings 1000 under served children to Paramount’s Great America Park for a day of fun and rides.  He has also chaired a world community service project, which brought the first generation of Apple computers to Chile, South America to thirteen different towns in three different Chilean Rotary districts.

Gary and his wife, Linda, will be celebrating their 27th Wedding Anniversary in August.  They have two adult children, Justin who recently entered the family business on a full time basis, and Christina, who is currently attending St Mary’s College of Moraga, CA.