Tim Eckles named Atascadero’s Citizen of the Year

By Camille DeVaul · Thu Feb 05 2026

Honored for a lifetime of service, ALF Food Pantry leader reflects on community, humility, and the power of “we”

ATASCADERO — 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. Eckles, 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," Eckles 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, Eckles moved to Atascadero in 1985, where he and his wife, Julie, raised their four children in their Colony home.

Eckles holds great respect for the teachers in our community.

"Teachers are the salt of the earth," Eckles 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, Eckles 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, Eckles 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.

Eckles 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, Eckles 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, Eckles 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, Eckles 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, Eckles gets a little choked up.

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

Since joining the organization as a grant writer, Eckles 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 Eckles 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 Eckles 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.

You can learn more about Eckles in the February issue of Atascadero News Magazine.

Feature Image by Rick Evans/ATN