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FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2007 file photo, float designer Raul Rodriguez, right, waves from the City of Santa Fe Springs (California) float "Our Home Town," in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Rodriguez, who created hundreds of award-winning Rose Parade floats and contributed designs for many other events, including the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, has died. He was 71. His publicist, Harlan Boll, says Rodriguez died at his Pasadena home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
PASADENA, Calif. | Raul R. Rodriguez, who created hundreds of award-winning Rose Parade floats and contributed designs for many other events, including the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, has died. He was 71.
FILE – In this Jan. 1, 2007 file photo, float designer Raul Rodriguez, right, waves from the City of Santa Fe Springs (California) float “Our Home Town,” in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Rodriguez, who created hundreds of award-winning Rose Parade floats and contributed designs for many other events, including the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, has died. He was 71. His publicist, Harlan Boll, says Rodriguez died at his Pasadena home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) FILE – In this Jan. 1, 2007 file photo, float designer Raul Rodriguez, right, waves from the City of Santa Fe Springs (California) float “Our Home Town,” in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Rodriguez, who created hundreds of award-winning Rose Parade floats and contributed designs for many other events, including the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, has died. He was 71. His publicist, Harlan Boll, says Rodriguez died at his Pasadena home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
His publicist, Harlan Boll, says Rodriguez died at his Pasadena home on Wednesday.
Rodriguez was 15 when he won a school trophy for designing the Rose Parade float for the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier.
He went on to create more than 500 floats. They won more parade awards than any other designer’s.
Rodriguez also created sets for a 1984 world’s fair in New Orleans, floats for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary parade, and designed for stores, restaurants, hotels and casinos. His huge neon facades appear on the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and the Circus Circus hotel in Reno.
