A Visionary Creates a Bequest for Pasadena

Marsha Rood was one of many women to blaze a trail in Pasadena, and her career in urban planning, redevelopment, and economic revitalization made a significant impact here. In 2023, she used PCF’s Memorandum of Charitable Intent to ensure the city she loves will benefit from her generosity forever.

As Marsha Rood shares her impressive role in Pasadena’s late 20th century downtown resurgence, she pauses to laugh, saying “I have an almost embarrassing passion for Pasadena.” That passion first played out between 1982-2000, when she served as the city’s Development Administrator and became a major force in the nationally recognized program of redevelopment, historic preservation, and economic revitalization of Pasadena’s downtown core, including Old Pasadena. This spring, Rood turned to Pasadena Community Foundation to ensure the city she loves will benefit from her generosity forever.

Old Pasadena’s Preeminent Developer

With a BA degree from Stanford University and a master’s with honors from USC’s School of Planning, Rood was well qualified to help tackle the redevelopment of downtown Pasadena in the early 1980s. This was when dilapidated “Old Town” was evolving into “Old Pasadena,” a shopping, dining, and residential area that leveraged the area’s history and architecture. Rood became immersed in the endeavor, forging critical public and private partnerships to make it all possible.

Her most important role was acting as the developer of Old Pasadena’s parking garages and streetscapes plan, overseeing every aspect in constructing the city-owned parking structures, which were designed to be compatible with the surrounding historic architecture and to provide revenue for the ongoing redevelopment efforts. “I was paid to do what I love. Getting  Marsha Rood to put in place what we planned was a special privilege.”

Marsha Rood has been honored extensively by national, regional, and city organizations. She is pictured here (center) in 1999 accepting an award from the Old Pasadena Business and Professional Association for her outstanding contributions to Old Pasadena.

A Memorandum for Charitable Intent (MOCI) for Future Support

Rood remains dedicated to her community, offering her leadership and service to organizations like Pasadena Presbyterian Church, the Shakespeare Club, the Women’s Committee of the Pasadena Symphony Association, the Pasadena Rotary Club, and Old Pasadena Management District. Her generous spirit for Pasadena will continue in the future by including PCF in her bequest. She used PCF’s Memorandum Of Charitable Intent (or “MOCI”) to designate future funding for Friends in Deed, Pasadena Heritage, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and the Women at Work Endowment, a PCF fund. Her MOCI also directs PCF to establish the Marsha Rood Endowment upon her passing, which will provide unrestricted support for the Foundation’s grantmaking.

Marsha Rood pictured in her home office holding one of her early business portraits. April 2023