The Legacy of Captain Rudy De Leon

Legacy is a common theme in leadership, but it's rarely seen. In this episode, Dr. Travis Yates explores the legacy of LAPD Captain Rudy De Leon through the lived experience of his granddaughter, Brandi Stansbury-Moody.

For more information on Captain De Leon, read our article here. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 1:54 Why Rudy De Leon’s Story Matters
• 5:10 Family Reactions And Legacy Awakens
• 8:28 Charisma Versus Investment In People
• 13:56 Community Connection Through Language
• 18:04 Activities That Break Barriers
• 22:30 Generational Influence And Mentorship
• 27:16 Firsts, Honors, And Boxing Roots
• 31:08 Community Safety And The Gray Area
• 36:24 Leading At Home With Joy

Transcript

Announcement: 0:01

Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice, and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

Travis Yates: 0:12

Welcome back to the show. It's such an honor you decided to spend a few minutes with us here today. And I'm really excited about what you're going to hear and even see today. Because on today's episode, we have Brandi Stansbury Moody. She was born and raised in California, went to college at Newark University, and has been a lifelong marketer in the food and beverage industry. You're going to ask yourself, what does Brandy have to do with law enforcement leadership? Well, she just so happens to be the granddaughter of one of the most legacy-driven men that we've talked about here on the show and in our articles, Rudy DeLeon, former LA police commander. And Brandy reached out to us when we published that article. And I said, Listen, we ought to tell these stories to our audience. And she's been uh very open and honest, and she's wanted to come on the show and talk to you today. And I think it's going to be really exciting. Brandi, how are you doing today?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 1:05

I'm great. Thank you so much for having me.

Travis Yates: 1:08

So I want to just sort of take you back. I mean, you obviously had a pretty unique childhood, and your grandfather was just sort of an icon among men there in the Los Angeles area. But uh so we'll get into all that. But when you found the article, I don't know how you found it, sort of talk to us about your feelings or emotions and what made you reach out to us.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 1:28

Okay, well, first of all, I'm uh kind of a geek when it comes to my family, and I actually have a Google Alert set up.

Travis Yates: 1:36

Um by the way, for a lot of cops listening, I don't recommend that. Just don't don't don't know any of that stuff, right? But okay, go ahead, Brandy.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 1:42

Well, I I have to say I have a Google alert set up for myself as well. And I I've actually read your article about like um uh like your you know keeping track of like your you know what people your reputation and whatnot. So highly recommend you might want to set up a Google Alert. But I had a Google Alert set up, so that came through. And um, there's six of us grandkids, um, my mom and my uncle, who are both the children of my grandpa and grandma. Um, there's six of us that are really close, um, consider us like brother and sister relationships. We grew up really close together. So we have a cousins group text, and you know, I put that out on the group text, and and we were just overjoyed. You know, we love, we know all these stories. Um, we always piece them back together. You know, it's been a while since my grandfather passed away. So it's always nice to keep to hear them keep, you know, proliferating and keep uh, you know, to he keep sorry, to keep hearing people talk about him. Um and that was just really great. So to see it, and then just to see the pictures, you know. You, you know, people pass away, and then you're like, oh my gosh, there's my grandpa. So it was really over it was really overwhelming, and um, it was really kind of a light in the last couple of months for our family to to see that. So, you know, we really thank you for for publishing that. And yes, it's a Google alert. So that's how I found it.

Travis Yates: 3:06

Yeah, I mean, we've published those kind of things. We never know where it's gonna go, where it's gonna be. That article actually went pretty far. I I heard from the head of the LAPD police union. I think I heard from a guy in the Hispanic Coalition, I think I heard from a couple of family members. Uh, yeah, so it was pretty cool, and and uh we didn't know that, but it was published from the heart. And obviously, I have a history about Rudy Day Leon. And I think I think kind of to set the stage and the foundation we're about to talk about. Uh, we want to we want you to show you this video if you're watching this and you can listen to the audio. This is an excerpt from our training, courageous leadership. So uh here we go. You gotta remind yourself of that.

Speaker 2: 3:44

We talk about legacy, that's Rudy De Leon, Captain Los Angeles Police Department, passed away in 2010. You've never heard of Rudy Day Leon.

Travis Yates: 3:52

I have never met Rudy Day Leon, but I'm only standing in front of you because of Rudy De Leon. My father grew up in Torrance, California. And I don't have a lot of specifics, but home life was not always optimal. Father in and out. Right. And Rudy DeLon went to high school. My my father went to high school with Rudy DeLon's daughter. And him and his group of friends and her group of friends, they would end up where Rudy de Leon was.

Speaker 2: 4:32

And I think they were just using the daughter to get to Rudy DeLeon because Rudy de Leon was then at the time a sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, and they just they just embraced who Rudy De Leon was. Rudy De Leon would spend time with these kids and invest in these kids and tell these kids stories, and they were just enamored by him.

Travis Yates: 4:51

I'll tell you the type of leader Rudy de Leon was. Joseph Wombaugh passed away, the most famous police author out there. If you haven't heard of him, look him up. Centurions, Onionfield, they made Hollywood movies with him. But his first three bestsellers, he was a Los Angeles police officer. He was still on the streets. And he started writing these books and they blew up. And of course, anyone that has tried to do something outside your job and something goes starts getting some traction, you would expect, yeah, Womball started getting some some flack from the admin. What what's what's he doing?

Speaker 2: 5:22

They come to Daily On, goes to Womball, work for Daily On, and they go, hey, this Wombaugh, now you gotta get this guy in check. And Daily Lawn goes, You can just take that back to your office because he shows up for 40 hours a week, he does a great job, but he does all of this off-duty. Now, Womball had to eventually retire with like 12 years on because he became so famous, people were like calling L.A.P.D. going, send Joseph out. Yeah, so it just wasn't working out for him.

Travis Yates: 5:46

But at the time he was the biggest of the big. In fact, all the when you look at police movies and police shows, Womball influenced all that, right? It was no longer just the facts, man, man. We got to the real nitty-gritty through his writings. De Leon was Iwo Jima. He told these stories to these kids and he spent time with these kids. My father would have never become a police officer without Rudy De Leon. His best friend would have never become a police officer without Rudy DeLon. I likely would not be standing here without Rudy DeLion, influencing my father to make my father who he was, who then made me who I was. You understand how legacy works. Rudy DeLon doesn't know any of this. No, obviously he impacted thousands. He started the POW program, he started the boxing program, he impacted thousands of kids. There are Olympic gold medal winners from 84 that Rudy DeLon mentored. But he has no idea of this story. Right? His name's not up in lights. No, he didn't name a station after him. He was the first uh Latino commander, LAPD, and he's very well known there. But you don't know him. But his profession from coast to coast has been influenced in some way or another by Rudy DeLyon. Rudy DeLon's son became a police officer and spent 37 years there. My dad's best friend spent 40 years in law enforcement. His son, who is my friend growing up, is still at LAPD. All of that legacy from Rudy DeLyon, who was here, if if he could be here, would probably tell you, he would probably point to somebody else that influenced him. You have that opportunity in the job and out the job. Okay, Brandy, we're back. And and obviously Rudy's story plays a prominent role uh in the leadership training we do. You don't know this, but that's actually the last section of the day. I sort of build things up and I want people to remember things at the end of the day. People remember things at the early day and the last day. But we we tell Rudy's story, then my father's story is the last two stories of the day. So it's obviously it's a prominent, he's a prominent figure in leadership training. And of course, you grew up around this, and I guess maybe you thought it was normal, but obviously Rudy was different. Uh, you know, I can't imagine being uh minority in the 60s, you know, and and having to work his way through that. He was I believe he was the first Hispanic commander, so a lot of first back then, unfortunately, right? It took us a long time to have first in law enforcement. We're still working towards that. Uh, just as a as a as a child, I mean, what was your thoughts about that as you saw this playing out live?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 8:27

Well, there's a certain duality, right? Because like my grandpa was really larger than life. Like, like you have no idea. I mean, you do have an idea, but you can imagine as like a child, it really was like a larger-than-life person in my world. So everything about him was really special. Like he had a secret knock at our door, which in hindsight was um a safety issue, right? It was like a very, very like police thing, right? Like my grandpa had a secret knock that became our family secret knock so that you knew that uh that wasn't a stranger and that was your family member, which I kind of laugh now, but it's like our secret family knock. Um and I cannot tell you enough about how like well loved my grandpa was, but not just from like a um, you know, from a law enforcement and from like an industry, so to speak, perspective, but there was a certain kind of magneticism that my grandpa had in the community that was really um special. So, you know, you'd go anywhere with my grandpa, and you know, like all the city officials would know him, and you know, police and law enforcement would know him, but then like the shopkeepers would know him, and he would know them on a personal level. He would know, you know, oh, how's your son? Oh, how's your house? And he would know all these special stories. And, you know, looking back, that really, you know, you talk a lot about legacy, and that made an impression on my cousins and I and my siblings in a way that is insurmountable. You know, it's it's one of those things where, you know, you don't you don't know at the time that like this is making an impression on me, but then you realize how you've led your life and wow, this is like exactly, you know, whether or not, I mean, he was doing this, you know, he was led by example at all times. But really, that was really something that was so cool. Like, you know, you go to like, I remember we go to like um a restaurant. There was a restaurant in East LA that we'd always go to called La Paria. And like he knew every single person there, like the bus boy, this, that. And then he'd be meeting there with like, you know, someone really important from like LAPD. And that just makes an impression on you as a kid to really pay attention, you know, to be mindful and know who everyone is around you. And I think that's really important. Um so that was something that always really stuck with me through life, you know, seeing not just like how popular my grandpa was, but like how he was able to connect with everybody on like a deeply personal level. Um, I think that was that was also super cool. And, you know, and in terms of like, you know, being a minority and living in these like two different worlds, um, you know, for obviously I don't present Mexican. There's a lot of um, like, you know, my dad's family is white. But I always kind of viewed it as my grandpa's superpower a little bit, like this ability to speak Spanish. Like I remember when we were kids, my grandma and grandpa used to take us a lot of places, and my mom would always laugh because we came back from riding with grandpa in his car, and we were like, Mom, did you know that grandpa's radio speaks in Spanish? Like we were like blown away, and then he would teach us songs in Spanish. And later, like in life, like I'm fluent in Spanish now, and I feel like it's a superpower, and that's something where again it goes back into like connecting with community, um, where I always kind of just learn by example with him, where the more you could connect with people, be it through language or just talking, you know, the more powerful that was in building your community.

Travis Yates: 12:25

I think it's so powerful. You said so much there. I want to unpack it a little bit. So, what I heard from you is there's no question that uh Captain De Leon had charisma. We talk about charisma a lot in leadership. I mean, you can almost look at his photograph and you know he's got charisma. And so that is that's exuberant. But it takes more than charisma. We have a lot of leaders of the charisma that are not great leaders or kind of some evil maniacs if you be quite honest about it. But that but he had not only the charisma, but he had the investment in people. I mean, those people don't know him uh because he didn't pour and pour into them. He's spending hours meeting them, greeting them, talking to them about family. I mean, the the time that he had to have spent with all of these individuals for them to years later know who he is and talk and be able to come up to him is I think something that's missing in leadership today, Brandy. And I want to I want you to speak to that. So you obviously saw the output of that and the outcome of that, but this would have been tremendous work for him because you know you have a choice in law enforcement, you have a choice in any job. You can just go to work, keep your head down, do your job, go home. Nobody's gonna ask you to go out and meet all the community people, nobody's gonna ask you to know everybody's names, nobody's gonna ask you to know to spend time with people. It's not part of the job description, unfortunately. He decided to do that, and I have to think it was his roots, it was the communities he was in because he lived in this community, he policed in this community. Do you think law enforcement's missing out on sort of this what Rudy youth did? I mean, this was before we had this term community policing and all these fancy programs and all these leadership programs, he just did it. And and and I think we were we got to be careful here because it makes it may come across like this was just natural for him. And I can guarantee you there were days he didn't want to invest this much into people. He was tired, busy, whatever, but he did it anyway. And and obviously you as a child saw that output, which is tremendous. What do you do you think that that's missing today? Do you still see that same level today in law enforcement? And just cut, you know, nationwide. I mean, I think our whole country needs to hear this, not just law enforcement.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 14:30

No, I I don't see it as much. I mean, you know, I live in Silicon Valley, so I'm don't see it a lot in leadership here either. But um I don't see it as much, I don't see like a genuine kind of excitement around learning about people. I mean, I know our families always had it, and I know that you know, like it didn't, it comes naturally to my grandpa, like it came naturally to him because we have a huge family. Like he's one of five. And then of those five, they all had kids, and our cousin network is huge. So there was this kind of baked-in, like, we gotta get to all know each other kind of thing. And I feel like there's not this genuine interest in getting to know people as much anymore. And I'd say that the the thing that really kind of, you know, and it wasn't with my grandpa, it wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna sit down and just chat with you. Like a lot of times it was active. Like one of my favorite stories is I was an adult and I was in a restaurant in Oakland, and I was sitting at a table next to Jerry Brown, um, who at the time was the governor, or maybe it just been the government's just the next government.

Travis Yates: 15:42

Yeah, I think he was the governor and he wasn't the governor. I think maybe it's a governor again. He did it a couple times, yeah.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 15:47

Yeah. So I was sitting next to Jerry Brown, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna say something, you know, because he knows my grandpa from like parole board days. And um, so I did, and Jerry Brown was like, Oh my god, I loved your grandpa. We used to go jogging together, and Jerry Brown's wife was like, You jogged. And so that was like kind of funny, and we all had a laugh, but you know, he to the point where it was like, you know, it wasn't just like sitting down, it's like, well, let's find like an activity to do together and do it together. You know, it goes back to like the boxing and the police athletic league and that kind of stuff. Like, where can we meet together in an activity that will not just like keep us active and be positive, like from like a physical but almost break the barriers down, break the communication barriers down. Totally. So I think that's also like a really important aspect. I mean, my mom was a park director, my mom Rudy's daughter, and that was kind of her vibe too, where it was like everything was like, you know, let's do a game, let's do this, like, and I think that's missing in a lot of um communities. I mean, I know that's been important for me when building community, where you know, I moved to this neighborhood 10 years ago. I didn't know anybody. And to be honest, like it wasn't very an inviting neighborhood, but then we started having block parties and we all got to know each other and we hang out all the time now. And from like a from like a community safety standpoint, like we don't we like call each other when some we think something's going on, you know, we have this kind of um bond, and you know, we've really created a sense of community here because we just talk to each other, we we you know have barbecues and we do things like that. And I think, you know, obviously that's something that's part of my legacy, but I do think that's something that's missing is just this like, let's hang out, you know, let's go for a jog, let's play baseball, let's, you know, I used to play a lot of racquetball with my grandpa, so yeah.

Travis Yates: 17:55

Yeah, you know, I mean, you I think you just described probably the biggest divide in America today. It's not politics, it's not ideas, it's not opinions. I think we all have much more in common than not, but it's the fact we don't take time to get to know each other, right? And uh you you mentioned jogging, and I had an interesting comment uh after this article hit. Captain LAPD Captain Anthony Espinoza called me and he said, I used to go jogging with Captain Rudy DeLeon and my father, Bobby Espinoza, who was with LAPD, uh, when I was a kid. And and uh I don't know, I mean maybe it was in his teen years, but he said that I guess every Sunday they would jog together. And Bobby and Rudy had been long since retired, but they would still show up and jog together. And and I and Anthony described that, of course, he's the very successful LAPD commander now, and I have to think, and he knows this, that Rudy DeLeon laid the ground groundwork for that. Uh so just I know you heard the video earlier if you're listening, but my father and Bobby Espinoza are friends. I mentioned this because my father was quick to tell me that he wants to be he wants to know when this podcast drops. He him and Bobby want to know when the podcast drops. So they were friends in high school and they were friends with Rudy's daughter in high school. And who was that again? My mom. Yeah, your mom. Uh, I'm sorry, I've got the I got the generational tree messed up here. No, no, it's okay. It's funny.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 19:15

Yeah.

Travis Yates: 19:16

And and they and that they would go out and hang out at your mom's house and sort of as a ruse to get to talk to Rudy. And Rudy would well, I tell you, I know I choke up, but I keep talking about a class. I'm sitting here doing it right now because it's amazing to me as a father or as a former police commander that that you would just stop and take the time with your child's friends and just pour into them, right? Because you because here's how it works, Brandy. You spend if you do this leadership thing, right? You're spending all day doing that. You're pouring into your officers, you're pouring to your community, you're investing in people. When you come home, it's probably the last thing that Rudy wanted to do. And then he and then my father has all these memories of just him telling all these stories. I don't think it's I don't think it's a coincidence that that your father that that Rudy was uh in the military, World War II. My father and Bobby went to Vietnam military. Your uh Rudy was police officer, they became police officers, and that's just the people I know about. You know, I'm a product of my father. Uh Anthony Espinoza is a product of his father, they're a product of Rudy. I mean, we're talking thousands and thousands of people whose lives were steered in the direction of positive change to to give back to the community because of this one man. That has to that I don't know. I mean, I'm sure you realize, but that has to almost be overwhelming to you, right?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 20:36

I mean, it always is. Like, you know, and again, like I it's so funny. I have I remember Anthony when he was a kid.

Travis Yates: 20:44

Um he was a kind of an ugly little kid, wasn't he? Don't I remember that right? I'm trying to think back because he he visited me a few times as a kid. They they've traveled to my home in Arkansas as a kid because my parents were very close. But uh yeah, I I remember him as kind of a goofy, ugly little kid. Am I remembering that right?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 21:02

I don't know what to say that.

Travis Yates: 21:03

I'm just messing with him. I'm just messing with him.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 21:05

But no, I remember we would all all hang out. But yeah, um, it is it is a bit overwhelming because like, again, like it was such an insular, like, you know, our family was very close, and like my memories a lot are like, you know, going to my grandpa's on Sundays and like after he went jogging, and then like then he'd still have energy to like play racquetball with us kids and swim and play games and and not even want to hang out with the adults, like hang out with us. Um, and it wasn't until we went to community things with him where it was like, oh wow, my grandpa's actually kind of a big deal. Like, you know, he was really involved in the boxing community, obviously. We went to a lot of boxing events. Um, there was a boxing gym in Carson, Flabella Chavez was a good friend of his. Um, we used to go to a lot of, you know, boxing stuff there. Uh, and so at those things, you'd understand like the gravity of like, oh, he knows all these people. And then as I got older, and as like, you know, um, I'll never forget I was in the geography B, the state geography B in Sacramento at the time when my grandpa was working for um the attorney general. And so we got my mom and I went for my competition and we got this like incredible tour of the Capitol. And it was like everybody in the Capitol, of course, knew my grandpa. And then that was like when things really started to resonate, and that was like when I was in junior high. Um, so yeah, you I always knew, and it was a bit, it was overwhelming because people were so respectful and again, magnetic, you know, always so excited to see my grandpa. You know, no one, I mean, I've never known anyone to not be excited to talk about him or see him. And I I think that's an incredible trait for someone too. Again, talk about things not being like that anymore, but it's pretty rare to have somebody with a reputation and a, you know, a legacy that is just so revered and people just really enjoy talking about them. Um, so that's really exciting. I think that was really cool for me too. Um, yeah, just the way people again light up when they talk about him.

Travis Yates: 23:19

Well, I wanted to give our audience uh that's watching this just a little bit of example. I mean, uh obviously the legacy is incredible, but I just want to give a quick bio. Rudy Delon entered the LAPD Police Academy in 1947. He was one of just three minority cadets in that class of 135 people. He later became uh the first Latino commanding officer, the first president of the police historical society, the first president of the Latin American Law Enforcement Association, the first Latino to have an LAPD station named after him. If anybody makes it to the Hollandbeck police station there in Los Angeles, that's named after Rudy. Please stop by and see what that has to offer. But you also mentioned he was he was very invested in the boxing community. I believe he started a boxing sort of boxing league for kids there, and he even trained some Olympic athletes. Kind of expand on that what he did with boxing, Brandon.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 24:10

Yeah, so he was a boxer. I think he had like a like a short stint in boxing in the Navy. Um, my uncle always knows the history much better than me, but I know he did box for a hot second, and then he just loved boxing. Like my grandpa really was passionate about the sport, um, and grew up around it in when he was a kid. And then when he was at Hollandbeck, he started a boxing gym in the basement to basically keep kids off the streets, you know, to give them a place to go, um, to train, to keep in shape. And then eventually um that gym was the home of Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez, which was, you know, a huge, a huge thing for Hollandbeck, for the neighborhood, really. And it was really, and then it wasn't just like at Hollandbeck, but then my grandpa also became the boxing commissioner for the state of California. Um so boxing was just like always a constant in his life, and being part of the boxing community was super important to him. Like growing up, there used to be a fight night at the sports, I think it was called the sports arena in LA, the LA Sports Arena, and on like Monday or Wednesday nights. And I remember we would go as kids, even though it was a school night. And my grandpa was like a pretty regular fixture at that because he was the boxing commissioner and we'll go to events. And then also, like I mentioned, um we'll pretty regularly go to more community boxing events in the neighborhood. And it was just something that was, you know, he he loved to support, he loved the sport, and again, it keeps people active, it keeps people off the streets, it keeps communities thriving. It's a community, right? Like you think about different communities, and I think it's important for people to be part of communities. And my grandpa always found joy in the boxing community, and I think it was really important for him to proliferate that community. And so um, I was always really excited to go to boxing stuff. So that was really cool as well as a kid to get to go to that because you know, you go to school all day, you go to your sports, and then all of a sudden you get to go to like a boxing match at the sports arena. Like, that's pretty cool, you know. But I think, you know, at the end of the day, like again, being part of a community is important. And my grandpa creating that community within um East LA, Boyle Heights at the time was really important and was really needed. Um, so I think that's something that could be emulated to this day, you know, not just in law enforcement, but anywhere, because that's something that's gravely missing.

Travis Yates: 27:01

Let's talk about East LA and that community. I mean, we're not talking about Silicon Valley in the 70s, you know. Uh, so I don't want people to come across like uh, you know, law enforcement today has this problem with it's either it's either this or it's that. We're gonna be just all community policing and no law enforcement, uh, or we're gonna be all law enforcement and who needs community policing, it's it's us versus them mentality. But I think that uh your your grandfather had a great mixture here. I mean, the stories I've heard is is yeah, he poured into people and he loved his community, but he also didn't put up with crime in his community. He didn't put up with people that were gonna prey on his community. Can you speak a little bit to that?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 27:43

I mean, I don't, I don't, I can't really speak to too much because I'm I don't know enough about like his police years. I know more about like the the the but that would be an accurate statement, what I just said, you you believe. Yeah, and also I remember at his um at his service, um I think one of my favorite things, I think it was Ed Davis that said this. Um I can't remember who it was, but it was a retired LAPD person who talked about it that my grandpa would also do stuff where like I think they had like a football game of like the police officers versus like the gang members, and like he would do stuff that was like so like in the gray area, but like kind of like pushed around like the you know, the the gang members to a point where like they really respected him. Um, and I thought that was like a great story.

Travis Yates: 28:36

You well, you just mentioned something that I think is also missing leadership in, and because you're right, there's a huge gray area. Some of the greatest leaders out there pushed the gray area, just what you said. I bet he didn't get permission to put a boxing gym in the basement of the Hollandbeck station, right? He he just did what was right, and today I'm seeing more and more law enforcement. Everybody's scared of their own shadow because they're because there's criticism everywhere, and you have very few people that want to operate in the gray area. Hey, we can all operate in a policy manual. That doesn't really change lives, to be honest with you. But I think what you're describing with your grandfather is yeah, I totally see where he operated in the gray area because you it would be hard to start a boxing league in any police department today without this liability for him and the mayor doing this. I mean, that's why we see so much, so much in action. And so long before his time, he was doing things that we now put, you know, grants to and we say are great programs and this and that. He was just doing it, he didn't wait around for it. And so I think there's something to be learned from that. Uh so yeah, I mean, go ahead.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 29:37

No, totally, and even like I I have this picture. I think my so my sister's a social worker. Again, it's like this legacy of like, you know, law enforcement isn't just, you know, well, obviously, my grandpa was law enforcement, but then it was like, you know, criminal justice, and then it was, you know, ombudsman. And and I think like, you know, for my sister, like what she She gleaned from that. And part of the legacy is you know her being a social worker and building community where she lives. And by the way, she's like runs every youth program at her school, which is like so my grandpa. Um, she has this great picture I gave her of my grandpa when he was on the Pearl Board running uh, you know, within I think it was Vacaville, they actually had like a 10K or like a marathon. And my grandpa ran it with the um prisoners. And like again, like you're saying, like I don't know if that would happen today, but you know, it's a really cool picture of my grandpa running with um one of the guys, and she has that in her office, which I think is really cool. Because again, it's like, you know, who who would do that? Like, and then again, it's again it's also like again, getting to know people and getting to know where they're coming from. And I think that's like a really important thing in leadership as well, is like where where are people coming from? Like, what's their perspective and how are we all gonna meet, you know, so that we can move forward with whatever we're working on.

Travis Yates: 31:09

Yeah, and we talk about gray area. Um, you know, I know I I've talked about this one story with him and Joseph Wombaugh. Joseph Wombaugh, obviously the great police officer, but he was working for Rudy. And Joseph, uh, when his first books came out, I guess he got really popular, but he was still on the job. And that made the brass, the administration, nervous. And I guess they were coming down to Rudy, who was his boss, you know, question him who is this guy and what's he doing? And I guess the story I heard is Rudy put these bosses in their place. He didn't hesitate, right? And and I don't think it's that's a bad thing. We need a little more pushback from some of the nonsense comes to the top, and of course, that captain level is kind of the middle that sort of keeps those below them shielded from that. I I think I would love for people to listen to this, Brandy, or read this and just inundate the comment section with stories because I know they're out there. We we only have a small, small fraction of those stories, and uh I think it's so fascinating because everybody wants to write about leader legacy, everybody wants to talk about leadership, but it's very seldom that we are able to hold hold a man up who who passed away in 2009 that people are still talking about on the tip of their tongue like it was yesterday. And I I I think most of us will never have that because most of us aren't Rudy Day Leon. There's just that you can't replicate that sometimes, but I think we should all try to. We should all model that. And wherever anybody's listening or watching, wherever they are in their leadership journey, I think this is a model that you need to hold up. And I want to I don't want to get off here without talking about the most important part of leadership, Randy, and how much you know about it. But my my theory, I don't think it's a theory, great leaders on the job are typically great leaders off the job. I know we talked about the community, but what about his family? Uh, did do you have any memories of how he led his family and and your impressions of that?

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 32:57

Yeah, so there's so again, I mentioned that he's one of five. Um, and I cannot tell you how how close are like how fun. And the Daleon family reunions are something of legend, right? There's there'd be like hundreds of people, and it would be something of like epic proportions of games and kids of all ages. And you know, my grandpa was basically one of like one of the kids. He'd always be like playing the games, and I mean, everybody just really, really like had a blast at those. And again, like my grandpa would be right in the thick of it with the kids, I think, which is always really fun for someone that was like such a leader in the law enforcement community to have this chance to break and then be like a kid with his family, I think is like a really important balance because that's like that work-life balance that we we talk about a lot in life. And um, I think that was also really important in leading family. Um, because you know everybody's like stressed out at work, and then all of a sudden you get to come home and you get to play with your grandkids, right? And you get to go like play rap. My grandpa, I'll never forget. Well, he bought us a camcorder, like when we were kids. Well, he bought a camcorder and was like, oh, the kids like they could, the grandkids can make movies. But it was like, no, my grandpa wanted to make movies with us, actually. So we had like a collection of movies that we'd make. He'd be in every single movie, like without hesitation, would be like, Absolutely, like I'll be in the movie. And so we'd always joke that like he didn't really buy the camera for us to make the movies, he bought it so that he could be in them. And I think that's that like incredible, like again, work-life balance that he had with like being able to be a leader at home that led with like joy, um, that I think is something that's really important that I don't know, a lot of people I think are missing these days is that joy. And if I can just say I I actually um I went, you know, Steve Kerr, the coach of the Warriors. I went and heard him speak the other day with uh it was he was in conversation with Sam Altman, who's a CEO of OpenAI, um, who was underwhelming. But Steve Kerr was so great because he was talking about the tenants of the Warriors, and he was saying how one of them was Joy. And I was like, you know, like people don't talk about joy enough.

Speaker 2: 35:29

Yeah.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 35:29

And it made me think of my grandpa because at every family event, you know, my grandpa would be silly, and he he and one of his brothers would always like play fight and you know, just kind of just be the the the class clowns, if you will, of the party. And I think we're missing a lot of that.

Travis Yates: 35:49

Um, so yes, as he's just look at you, just look at look at the down, the down, downstream of this, Brandy. I guarantee you're still having the family reunions, you're still doing the things, and that's that's generational. So Rudy built that, and and to me, that's that is unbelievable. Like, I mean, in three generations, maybe no one knows where that came from, but I bet they will, right? But that's where it came from.

Brandi Stansbury-Moody: 36:14

Yeah, and I think for our family, it's so important, like the legacy aspect. So at all of our family reunions to this day, um we have like our family tree laid out that shows who everybody is, what they did. Obviously, there's like a whole section with my grandpa and his accolades. And then um, I have my one of my mom's cousins was like a very um, he was a very well-known um human rights uh person. You know, he actually was like a, yeah, he was a human rights commissioner for the city of New York. He was the deputy mayor there. So the Daily Ones are like, you know, we've got a lot of legacy there. So at our family reunions, it's really important for us to show that to all the generations and for everybody to learn. Um, and that's not just with like my grandpa's, it goes a layer above. Like there's like a whole section of like, you know, the the story of how the family came from Mexico. My grandpa's dad was um my grandpa's dad was a cook at a restaurant in LA called Perinos, which was like a Hollywood, like, you know, famous people restaurant. And like my brother still has the apron from my great grandpa cooking there. You know, it's so important to us to like know that history. And and also that was something we talked about all the time. Like my grandpa was constantly telling stories of like when I was a kid and then this. And you know, my grandpa grew up around the Coliseum and the and USC is such a big part of my family history. Um, and so, you know, just telling those stories all the time, it's like second nature for me to know those. And I think it's important for people in general to always be telling their family stories because younger generations need to know those. Um, and also just, I mean, my grandpa was the best storyteller you ever could have imagined. Like my grandpa could tell a story about a dog crossing the street and make it the most exciting thing ever. And I think to your you're talking earlier about charisma, um, I think that's also, you know, really fun to be around someone that can tell a story that way. And I also think you you can learn a lot from that, right? As a leader, like it's important to be able to be a storyteller. And I think when you're around people that can tell stories like that, and what I think is really cool is I actually have old video and audio. Um, we used to record our family Christmases like on audio. So I have some of those stories of my grandpa talking. And then um I have a really fun video old video of of of like these movies we're talking about, and then I have another one of like us just filming him talking. So it's fun that we still have those. Um, but again, I think a lot to a lot said there, but mostly I think what's important is to tell those stories of family. And it's something that's been passed down to me forever, and that's been so cool. And I love my family. And I like you said, we're still doing the family reunions, and it's still important for us to tell those those stories. And my cousin just took her kids to go to the police station. I think last year they went to Hollandbeck um to his police station.

Travis Yates: 39:42

So well, Brandy, it it's been it's incredible. And I'll tell you on behalf of me and my family, I I still thank your family because I don't think I would even be sitting here talking to you if if that influence wouldn't have happened. Uh, your family shared Rudy with the world and shared Rudy with all of us, and and there's so many lives, thousands of lives have been changed for the better. I don't think we can ever uh thank you and your family enough. So thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing those stories. We could talk all day about this. This is incredible. But what I want people to do that are watching and listening to this is just evaluate. You know, uh, I don't think you're gonna be like Rudy Day Leon, but if you can be a fraction like Rudy Day Leon, this world's gonna be a better place. So thank you, Brandy, for being here, and thank you for watching, and thank you for listening. And just remember lead on and stay courageous.

Announcement: 40:30

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