Gus Villalta, worker who helped build Golden Gate Bridge, dies

Workers on the Golden Gate Bridge in a file photo. Workers on the Golden Gate Bridge in a file photo. Photo: Courtesy Www.goldengate75.org Photo: Courtesy Www.goldengate75.org Image 1 of / 79 Caption Close Gus Villalta, worker who helped build Golden Gate Bridge, dies 1 / 79 Back to Gallery

Gus Villalta was one of those young men you used to see around North Beach in San Francisco all the time in tough times of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

He was born in Italy, raised in San Francisco and had just graduated from Galileo High School.

Work was scarce when he got out of school in 1935. It was the Great Depression and grown men with families had a hard time finding a job. He was 18 years old, and any job looked good.

So when an electrical contractor offered him and his friends a job working on the Golden Gate Bridge, they jumped at the chance. The contractor was paying 75 cents an hour, in cash. The job wasn’t much, just an electrician’s assistant passing wire up on the south tower of the bridge to more experienced electrical workers.

Mr. Villalta later said that his contribution to building the Golden Gate was “no big deal.”

But he had a special distinction. When he died Tuesday at a hospital in San Jose, he was probably the last of the workers who built the famous bridge. He was 98 years old and lived most of his life in the Merced County town of Los Banos. He died one day before the 78th anniversary of the day the Golden Gate Bridge opened.

Mr. Villalta was quietly proud of his work on the Golden Gate, but never bragged about it. His son, Michael Villalta, the mayor of Los Banos, called his father “a humble man, the most decent man in the world. People like him — workers and immigrants — built that bridge.”

Gustave Villalta — everyone called him “Gus” — was well known in Los Banos, where he settled after duty in the Army during World War II. He ran Gus’ Radio and Television repair shop with his wife, Carmella, served on the town’s planning commission, ran a ham radio station, and was always on hand to set up the sound equipment at all the civic events in Los Banos.

He worked until he was 88 years old, and one of his favorite pastimes was a long walk through town every afternoon, stopping to talk to his friends.

Mr. Villalta is survived by his son, Michael, of Los Banos; daughter, Mary Villalta Brooks, of Merced; three grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.

A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Whitehurst Funeral Chapel in Los Banos, and a funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph’s Church in Los Banos.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf