The man behind the name of Rob Caveney Park

BY

One of the parks that received new playground equipment over the past couple of weeks is a pocket park on Early Round Dr. known as Rob Caveney Park. The new equipment includes a climbing structure with slides and swing set; the footing is manufactured wood shavings.

For residents who weren’t around in the 1980s, the name Rob Caveney may not mean much. But since very few amenities in the community are named for its members, those members need to be remembered.

The playground at Sierra Park is more extensive. Installers expect to have it completed on schedule by next Friday, August 14.

Rob was very active in Canyon Lake, serving on the CLPOA Board of Directors and as president of the Travel Club and Men’s Golf Club. He also was a longtime leader of the Tuesday Work Group.

Rob was the first one to bring military band concerts to Canyon Lake, inviting fellow U.S. Marines to perform at Indian Beach in the mid 1980s. (Cathy Zaitz and the Home Owners Club later picked up the task of inviting military bands to perform regularly each Fall.)

One reason for Rob’s interest in bringing this music to Canyon Lake was his own musical talent. In college, Bob was the drum major of the Pasadena Bull Dog Band, which is where he met his future wife, Jetsy, a majorette. They married in 1943.

In the early 80s, after Rob retired from his duties as a high school principal for the Los Angeles School District, they moved to Canyon Lake where they could continue pursuing their hobbies of golf, bridge and community activism.

In January 1985, Rob led a committee of golfers in proposing a new clubhouse at the Golf Course. In 1989, he and Carolyn Knight, then editor of The Friday Flyer, shared the honor of serving as grand marshals of the Fiesta Day Parade.

Rob and Jetsy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1993, just a few months before Rob’s passing. (Jetsy died just recently, on June 28, 2015, two weeks short of her 97th birthday.)