Jose S. Rodriguez; Moorpark Resident, 102

Lifelong Moorpark resident Jose S. Rodriguez, 102, died early Friday at home after a long illness.

Becky Rodriguez, one of Rodriguez’s nine children, described her father as a religious man who spent the last 20 or 25 years of his life in retirement, gardening, chatting with neighbors and reading his Bible.

“He was always a very religious man, always reading his Bible,” she said. “Whenever there was time he would sit in the rocking chair that he had and just read and read until he finally fell asleep.”

Rodriguez had worked as a yard maintenance employee at Strathearn Ranch until his retirement, and his daughter said he continued to enjoy working outdoors around his house in recent years.

“He would just kind of stay here at home, outside, doing little odds and ends, and sometimes he would meet with the neighbors and talk for a couple of minutes about what each one was doing on their own,” she said. “He was very active, he always wanted to get moving, get involved.”

Becky Rodriguez said her father’s secret to long life was simple. “He never let himself go,” she said.

She said the family is still struggling to come to terms with the death, having lost their mother years ago.

“He was a mother and father to us, let me put it that way,” she said. “We’re feeling his death so much. My dad was a very friendly, wonderful person, with a lot of dignity.”

Arrangements are being handled by the Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary in Thousand Oaks.