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Lahori Ram appointed to
state commission Today, at the age of 59, he is both rich -- owning more than 100 apartment units in the Bay Area -- and powerful. He is president of the Indian National Congress of America, hobnobs with the likes of Bill Clinton and former India prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, and was one of seven California businessmen and women appointed by Gov. Gray Davis last week to a four-year term on the state Commission for Economic Development. But the journey has not been easy. Ram left India as a 28-year-old graduate student on Aug. 15, 1972, the country's Independence Day, because it is known as an auspicious travel day. Ram would need the luck. He knew no one in America and had no idea where he would sleep when he landed. "I just wanted to leave on a good day so my stars would be good in the country where I was going," Ram said. He was taken in by some "friends of friends" who surprised him at the airport. And eventually he made his way to Yuba College in Yuba, Calif. to pursue a master's degree in foreign affairs. He worked summers as a farm laborer in Fresno, harvesting and processing peaches, prunes and almonds for 75 cents an hour, to help pay his way through school. In 1976, Ram started a career with the U.S. Postal Service at the San Francisco International Airport branch, working as everything from the registry clerk to a mid-level manager before retiring in 1994. He said he turned down upper-level management positions because they did not pay overtime -- the early key to Ram's financial success. Ram worked an average of 55-60 hours per week during the 18 years he worked at the branch, including most holidays. While the extra hours left him little time to help his wife, Prito, raise their three children, the extra work began to pay off for the family in other ways. Ram bought the family's first home in San Bruno in 1979, then sold it in 1984 to purchase the first of several apartment buildings. Over the course of the next 10 years, Ram gradually increased his holdings to the point that in 1994, he was able to purchase the Country Club Apartments in South San Francisco -- 52 units on two acres near the San Bruno border -- his "goldmine." The property tripled in value over the course of the next nine years. In 1981, in what free time he had from the post office, Ram helped to found the Sri Guru Ravidass Sabha Temple in Pittsburg, over in the East Bay. He donates to charity, and is a well-known figure in Sikh and Hindu religious circles, and often speaks at local temples. In the 1990s, he began to fund-raise on behalf of various political candidates, which eventually led to his political career. That was how state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, came to appoint Ram to the state Technology Trade and Commerce Committee in 1997. In 2000, Ram was appointed to the state Transportation Commission, overseeing Caltrans projects across California. Ram was an active supporter of Gov. Gray Davis during the 2002 re-election campaign. And his loyalty was rewarded with last week's appointment to the Commission for Economic Development. Chaired by Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the 17-member commission advises the governor and Legislature on economic issues facing the state. It is one of the more prominent of the dozens of advisory committees and commissions in Sacramento. "We became millionaires not by being lazy. All that we have is earned by hard work and working smart," Ram said. Lahori and Prito Ram currently reside in San Bruno and are preparing to move into their new home in the Burlingame Hills. Their children are Jagdev, 27, a law school graduate; Ajaipaul, 24, a law student in San Francisco; and Jagdish, 19, who is studying business at U.C. Berkeley. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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