The Randy Jones Foundation since 2016 has helped San Diego County’s active-duty military families and veterans give their kids something many otherwise couldn’t afford: a shot at competitive club sports. Now, through a new endowment partnership with San Diego Foundation, the organization is working to make sure that support outlives its late founder—legendary Padres pitcher Randy Jones—for generations to come.
“Randy wanted to make sure his programs would live on in perpetuity,” said Keith Fox, a member of the Randy Jones Foundation board of directors and one of the first donors to the Foundation’s 35/35 Legacy Campaign. “We felt San Diego Foundation was best able to do this. This is Randy’s payback to help military families and their kids.”
Building a $1 Million Legacy
The Randy Jones Foundation’s goal is ambitious but straightforward: build a $1 million irrevocable endowment, administered by SDF, to generate roughly $50,000 a year of investment earnings to fully fund its core programs assisting the children of military families. The 35/35 moniker evolved from Randy’s uniform number—35—and the 35 donors the foundation is hoping will contribute $35,000 each.
Investment earnings would be focused on offsetting the rising cost of summer travel ball for military kids ages 12 to 17—an expense that’s become a barrier for too many service members’ families. The Randy Jones Foundation also organizes deep-sea fishing trips for youth and their families, and partners with the San Diego Padres to host participants on the field at Petco Park.
San Diego County is one of the largest military hubs in the country and is home to more than 118,000 family members of active-duty personnel. It is estimated that more than 60,000 of those family members are children, and many of those kids miss out on club sports and other opportunities because a parent is deployed or stationed abroad.
Fox says the foundation is realistic about where it fits among San Diego’s many worthy causes. “We’re not naïve; there are a lot of worthy charities and there are a lot of people who could benefit from philanthropic dollars,” he said. “But this is something that will help keep the legacy of Randy Jones, a true San Diego hero, alive, while benefiting kids from military families.”
Grants are not limited to those on travel ball teams. Past scholarship recipients include Austin Ray, who trained with Alliance Brazilian Jiu Jitsu of Carlsbad. “I’m motivated by just knowing the Randy Jones Foundation is behind me,” said the son of a Marine. “I’m working harder to stay on top of my grades so my scholarship will continue each year. It helps me stay more focused in my sports and motivates me to try my best.”
Honoring a Padres Legend
For Curtis Gandy, an Army veteran and chairman of the Randy Jones Foundation board, the mission is inseparable from the man who inspired it. Gandy met Jones at a charity golf event years ago, and the two soon teamed up to form the Randy Jones Foundation alongside founding directors Matt Schwartz, Chris Johnson and Jim Allen.
“He was a staple here in San Diego, a true superstar,” Gandy said. “He was the first Padre to win a Cy Young Award. He was the first Padre who had his number retired. He was the first Padre pitcher to win an All-Star Game.”
Jones’s on-field legacy is well documented in Padres history—but Gandy points to a moment beyond the stat sheets as the one that mattered most to the franchise’s survival.
Randy Jones (Photo Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
“Back in the day, when the Padres were really struggling, he was a major reason the team didn’t look to relocate,” Gandy said. “When 1976 came along, he wins 16 games by the All-Star break, which had never been done before. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was the man.”
Gandy remembers the electricity Jones brought to Padres games at the cavernous San Diego Stadium during an era when the team struggled to draw a crowd. “The Padres were not packing the stadium like they are now,” he said. “They were a perennial last-place team. But when he pitched, 30,000 or more people would come out. He’d come walking down the left field line from the bullpen before his starts, and everybody would go wild. He played an integral part in growing the popularity of the team.”
Beyond the mound, Jones was a fixture at hundreds of charity golf events across San Diego over the decades, giving back with his time and volunteer efforts long before creating a foundation.
What’s Next
With the endowment newly established—finalized just two months before Jones’s passing in November 2025—the Randy Jones Foundation’s next challenge is reaching the full $1 million goal to support the estimated 60,000-plus military-connected children in the region.
For a foundation built on a decade of grants, fishing trips and Petco Park memories, the goal now is permanence—ensuring that Randy Jones’s commitment to San Diego’s military families becomes not just a legacy, but a lasting institution.
