His parents named him Oswald Joseph Da Ros. But as far as the community was concerned, his middle name was “integrity.” Ozzie Da Ros’s legacy in Santa Barbara was not only the buildings and structures that you see, but the standard to which they were built.
Ozzie was born in Santa Barbara in 1921 to Italian immigrants Marianna Mautino and Antonio Da Ros; his father was a stone mason who had built brownstone houses as well as tunnels under the Hudson River. Around 1915, Antonio Da Ros had moved to Santa Barbara, where masons were greatly in demand, as there was a keen interest in the work of European craftspeople. Antonio Da Ros apprenticed under two of the most famous — Peter Poole and R. Wood — working on the iconic walls in Mission Canyon, balustrades on Alameda Padre Serra, Plaza Rubio, the stone house on Padre Street, and the McCormick estate.
Antonio then trained his young son Ozzie in the tradition of the Italian masons. Ozzie started early, helping out on the job sites, such as the all-stone addition on Samiramis (Eaton House) and Wallace Frost’s estate. Ozzie was even allowed to get a special driver’s license at the age of only 14 so that he could become the timekeeper and apprentice at the building sites after school hours and on Saturdays.