The Road to Raley's

Charles Nordby is Sacramento's hometown hero. And in just about every town in Northern California. 

You probably have never heard of our father before, but you know what he did. You just didn't know that he was the one that did it.

Considering that he was abandoned as a young child at the age of two, he went on to do things that no one else had ever done. And the great things that he did, he did humbly and without any or very little fanfare for himself.

​My name is Jack and I am the 7th  of my dad's 9 children and a eye witness to what a great dad and great man that our father was. Though he had to work 6 days a week to take care of such a large family, his 7th day was almost always for the family. He was a dedicated father, but when you have 9 children, squeezing in time for each of them was a challenge, but I never felt like I was deprived of dad, neither did the other 8 brothers and sisters.

Our dad truly enjoyed his one day off from work. He was always looking for some place in the Bay Area to take the 11 of us on a one day adventure that usually had a picnic at some point and that helped him to take his mind off from the dangers and craziness of his work world that none of us really knew what he did. 

Dad enjoyed his quiet time in front of the TV when there was quiet time with 9 children running  around. Usually later in the afternoon when all the kids were outside playing or  with their friends, he would sit there and watch golf. He loved watching Arnold Palmer play. 

Because there were so many children in our family, going out for dinner was a rarity unless we  went to Shakey's Pizza. On occasion dad would make all of us kids a very special strawberry milkshake using only milk, vanilla ice cream and strawberry jam and stirring it like crazy. We all thought it was so great.

He loved to whistle and make ups songs off the top of his head. He was always doing something nice for our mother who basically took care of the children and the household for the most part. 

Our dad always wore a suit. He reminded me of the men on the FBI television show of the 60's that we watched faithfully every Sunday night at 8pm. Little did I know that he was spending his days also going after criminals, until I was able to go to work with him on occasion and see him in action. 

As a SF Bay Area native, he spent his whole adult life working San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and throughout the Bay Area as a private and undercover investigator who worked as a expert consultant until he was 45 years old. The criminals that he was encountering in those days were the Hell's Angels, The Black Panthers, dishonest judges, professors, police officers, ministers, attorneys and even the famed 60's radical leader Abbie Hoffman.

He has said that he worked with nearly every law enforcement agency in most of the counties of Northern California, as well as Nevada's police and gaming commission. His reputation was impeccable and always got his man (woman). Always! 

He sent a lot of people to jail. I later realized that is why he always carried a little pearl handled gun, a can of mace and slept with a baseball bat next to his bed at night. We were always warned by mom, not to ever sneak up on dad in the bedroom when the lights were off. 

He was fearless in his profession and his expert witness and testimony was used in over 200 California court cases and everytime prosecutors called him to testify, they won their case in court.  

In the summer of 1973 at the age of 48 he began his most incredible task of his life by saving Tom Raley's supermarkets from going bankrupt. He not only did that, but he made Tom Raley one of the wealthiest men in the country and then he made his daughter Joyce Raley Teel and her family BILLIONAIRES on the Forbes 400 list. (Since this story broke, they have dropped off the Forbes 400 list completely)  

Read Charles Nordby's Success Story for Raley's and the Teel Family.. 

His true story that made them the wealthiest and most powerful family ever in Sacramento. 

​So why is Charles Nordby a hometown hero? 

Because had he not gone to Sacramento in 1973 and save Tom Raley's supermarket chain from going out of business, there wouldn't be a Raley's Supermarket today. Neither would there be any Raley's employees, or any of the contributions that Raley's makes to the communities they are in. 

In fact, if a person just begins to think of what the Sacramento and Northern California landscape would be like without Raley's and all its business related successes, it is inconceivable to imagine. Consider every person and business that has benefited since Raley's survived their darkest hour