The son of Italian immigrants, who came to the valley in the early 1900's, Regalia was born in his grandmother's house, on Angela Street, Jan. 24, 1920. Ambrose grew up in Pleasanton.

He was on the first championship football and baseball teams at Amador High School. He graduated from Amador in 1937.

Ambrose was the first string quarterback at St. Mary's College for one year and he attended spring training with the Old Brooklyn Dodgers.

Ambrose was drafted October 1941, 150 townspeople attended a farewell bash at the Odd Fellows Hall and presented him with a gold wristwatch. He went through basic training and artillery school, and was sent to Ft. Mears, Alaska.

The Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on the morning of June 4, 1942. Their bombs found Ambrose's munitions tunnel. That day, at 22  years old, less than six months after first donning an artilleryman's  uniform, Regalia became Pleasanton's first sacrifice to World War II.

A small street Regalia Court and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post bears his name.