2026 Citizen of the Year: Tim Eckles

By Camille DeVaul · Fri Feb 27 2026

The Atascadero Chamber of Commerce has named Tim Eckles its 2026 Citizen of the Year, recognizing decades of public service, leadership, and commitment to the local community. Tim, a longtime Atascadero resident, has made a lasting impact through his professional career in fire service and education, as well as his ongoing dedication to the ALF Food Pantry.

"It really got me a bit speechless at the time," Tim says of when he got the news of the award. "Maybe not feeling as though I was either ready or deserving of that recognition."

A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in aquatic biology, Tim moved to Atascadero in 1985, where he and his wife, Julie, raised their four children in their Colony home.

Tim holds great respect for the teachers in our community.

"Teachers are the salt of the earth," Tim says. "Teachers in this community, I know, from my children going through school, do so much to influence our children. And I'm very proud to say that my twin daughters, Amber and Emily, are both teachers."

His professional career spanned 36 years with Cal Fire, during which he served across multiple California counties, including Monterey, Riverside, Tulare, and San Luis Obispo. Rising through the ranks to battalion chief, Tim worked in fire crew camps, law enforcement investigations, planning and development, training, and grant writing. He also served as an agency representative during cooperative emergency incidents, overseeing expenditures of state emergency funds.

In addition to his fieldwork, Tim dedicated 30 years to teaching fire science courses at Allan Hancock College, covering subjects such as fire investigation, instructor training, equipment management, and ethics. In 2005, he graduated from the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, as an executive fire officer and continued to teach at both the academy and Allan Hancock College.

At one point, Tim even had his son, Brandon, as a student. Today, Brandon is following in his father’s footsteps while forging his own path in his fire service career.

Tim has served on the ALF Board since 2012 and currently holds the role of board president, a position he has held since 2017.

After retiring from Cal Fire in 2011 and continuing to teach through 2016, Tim was encouraged by his wife, Julie, to respond to an ALF Food Pantry advertisement, found in Atascadero News, seeking a volunteer grant writer. Having written grants throughout his fire service career, Tim stepped into the role and soon became more deeply involved, eventually joining the ALF board.

As leadership transitions within the organization arose, he helped guide ALF through the changes, training new grant writers and ensuring continuity in funding. With a strong grant team in place, Tim was able to focus on strengthening ALF’s presence in the community and supporting operational improvements with his team.

When talking about the dedicated volunteers he works with at ALF Food Pantry, Tim gets a little choked up.

"They're just such an exceptional gathering of people," Tim says. They have purpose and that energizes me. And they come in and make a difference every day."

He often thinks about to a conversation with Donn Clickard, who happened to attend the same high school as Tim, just 11 years earlier.

Tim shares, "Don always reminded me ... it's not me. It's we. That's really what ALF is. It's what we all collectively accomplish. It's not what I accomplish. It's what the group of nearly a hundred volunteers accomplishes."

Since joining the organization as a grant writer, Tim has helped strengthen ALF’s administration and operations through key initiatives, including increasing grant revenue, developing a financial investment policy, overseeing pantry facility remodels and improvements, facilitating the purchase of the ALF van, and advancing the search for a new, expanded facility. His goal remains focused on ensuring ALF can grow its services to meet the needs of the community.

ALF is currently in the process of moving to a new location where Ted Miles Motors is currently located. It is a space that promises more space for the nonprofit to flourish. And Tim hopes that one day it will become a place where more nonprofits can live, too.

"My vision for that property ... is that we be a property where other nonprofits are located, that we become a nonprofit campus and have other essential services," he explains.

So Tim isn't planning his exit from ALF anytime soon. Not until ALF is settled into its new location, at least.

"It'll have potential for even greater things ... it's not my organization. It's our organization. They can take it over," he says.

Outside of volunteering, Tim and Julie enjoy time with their growing family, including five grandchildren.

"I'm proud of my family. Including my son [Cameron], who passed away recently," Tim shares.

Reflecting on his career, especially when his children were growing up, Tim gives an immense amount of credit and appreciation to his wife Julie.

"She stepped up because I was gone so much," he says. "She's 51%. I'm just 49% ... she had the harder job. She's a pretty special person."

When Tim isn't spending time with family or helping around in the community, he can often be found fishing somewhere, practicing catch and release.

"I don't know if I've done enough to deserve recognition," Tim says in his closing thoughts. "Because I'm not a perfect human, and I have my failures, and I have my conflicts. If perfection goes along with Citizen the Year, then you need to count me out. I'm not, I'm not a perfect person."

Feature Image by Rick Evans/ANM

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