Alcario Castellano, the retired San Jose grocery clerk who turned his then-record $141 million lottery jackpot right into a automobile for philanthropy, died Saturday at age 90, surrounded by members of the family at his residence in Saratoga.
In latest days, many family and friends had come to go to him on the home, understanding the tip was close to, stated his son, Armando Castellano.
“I think it meant a lot to him,” his son stated. “He really rallied in his last days saying goodbye to those folks. It was beautiful.”
Al Castellano would say that he and his spouse, Carmen, already had an excellent life elevating their three youngsters at a house in San Jose’s Cambrian Park. However that life modified endlessly when he awoke one Sunday morning in June 2001 and realized he held the one successful ticket to the California Lottery jackpot.
That life-altering day, he had simply brewed a pot of espresso after which adopted his traditional routine of checking the successful numbers within the newspaper. He checked every quantity in opposition to the ticket he’d purchased the day earlier than at Union Liquors in San Jose. He couldn’t imagine his eyes. He walked outdoors and checked the numbers once more when he acquired again. It was actual.
Alcario Castellano, photographed along with his daughter, Carmela Castellano-Garcia at his residence in Saratoga on Could 4, 2023. He died April 26, 2025 in Saratoga. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Space Information Group)
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Alcario Castellano, photographed along with his daughter, Carmela Castellano-Garcia at his residence in Saratoga on Could 4, 2023. He died April 26, 2025 in Saratoga. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Space Information Group)
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He waited about two hours earlier than he shocked his spouse with the information. They danced hysterically. As Castellano jumped up and down and speaking about journeys to Bermuda, he observed his spouse sitting down taking notes.
“I thought she was taking notes about what I was saying,” he stated in a 2023 interview. “But she was writing down names. She said, ‘Oh, Al, just think of all the people we can help in Silicon Valley.’ ”
That’s when the Castellano Household Basis was born, turning into a distinguished philanthropic power over the following twenty years — offering greater than $7.5 million in grants to a nonprofit organizations massive and small that centered on arts and tradition, schooling and management, together with Somos Mayfair, the Jose Valdés Math Institute, Opera Cultura, MACLA and San Jose Jazz. It additionally vaulted the Castellanos to the forefront of a dialog nationwide concerning the inequities in funding for nonprofits run by and serving individuals of colour.
Carmen Castellano led the cost as the muse pushed Silicon Valley nonprofits to diversify their boards and to verify it paid consideration to Santa Clara County’s massive Latino inhabitants. Al Castellano stated he was at all times very pleased with what the muse turned on account of her work and that of their youngsters, who ascended into management roles in 2012 as their dad and mom stepped again.
“Our nonprofits are doing tremendous work without equitable funding, with minimal resources,” stated their daughter, Carmela Castellano-Garcia, who was president of the muse when it ended operations in 2023 and transferred its holdings into an endowment fund with the Silicon Valley Neighborhood Basis. “We were really able to elevate this issue locally and within philanthropy at the broad level.”
Al Castellano was born in New Mexico in 1936 and moved along with his household to Hollister as farmworkers. He labored nights at a grocery retailer all through highschool and served within the U.S. Military within the Fifties. When he was discharged, he discovered a job with an aerospace firm in Hollister and later labored in Palo Alto and Santa Cruz.
Not understanding anybody in Santa Cruz, Castellano stated he determined to name Carmen Ramirez and ask her out. That they had beforehand met at a marriage. He was the very best man and he or she attended as a good friend of the bride. They danced the night time away and he drove her residence to Watsonville.
“We were married about eight months later,” Al Castellano recalled. “I think her parents were happy they didn’t have to do a big wedding. We took care of it ourselves.”
The couple determined to maneuver to San Jose, with Carmen pushing for a four-bedroom home in an space with good faculties for her future youngsters. As Al Castellano recalled, San Jose was within the midst of a housing increase within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, however no one appeared wanting to promote a home to a Mexican-American couple.
“It was hard for people of color to buy a home,” he stated. “They wouldn’t even talk to us.”
Ultimately, they discovered a four-bedroom residence close to Union and Camden avenues in San Jose’s then-new Cambrian Park neighborhood, the place they lived for 40 years and raised their three youngsters, Armando Castellano, Maria West and Carmela Castellano-Garcia.
“There was only one other Latino there,” Castellano stated. “But it was a great place to raise kids. We had a good life there.”
Carmen and Al Castellano have been married for 57 years earlier than her dying in 2020 at age 81. Schooling was necessary to the Castellanos, and all three of their youngsters graduated from school and launched into profitable careers. The humanities have been additionally an necessary a part of the household’s life: Their two daughters every danced with Los Lupeños de San Jose, whose board their mom served on. Armando performs the French horn with Quinteto Latino, an ensemble that celebrated its twentieth anniversary this month on the Saratoga residence his dad and mom purchased after the lottery win.
Whereas Al labored at Safeway and Carmen had an extended profession as an government secretary at San Jose Metropolis School, the couple turned invested of their group. Each have been concerned with the American G.I. Discussion board in San Jose, and Al would usually videotape the group’s occasions, together with the annual Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day celebrations. These videotapes, together with different digital movies, images and papers, at the moment are a part of the Castellano Household Assortment held by the San Jose State College Library and the San Jose Public Library on the MLK Jr. Predominant Library downtown.
“He was always very generous, especially with the Latino community, and this was before they hit the lottery,” stated Fernando Zazueta, a retired San Jose lawyer who was additionally energetic with the American G.I. Discussion board on the time. “They were both very active, and they always made sure their feelings were made known. They did change the landscape for a lot of nonprofit organizations.”
Al Castellano thought-about himself fortunate for successful the lottery jackpot, however he usually stated turning into millionaires didn’t change the values held by himself, his spouse or his youngsters.
“I just think of it as the way we lived,” he stated. “We had those opportunities and we just did it.”
Castellano is survived by his three youngsters, a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Plans for a memorial occasion are pending.
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