Warren Hoag

Warren Hoag, January 1, 1949, to November 30, 2023, passed away in Denton TX at the age of 74. Warren was born in Berkeley, CA, to Leonard and Evonna Hoag. At two years old, Warren, his parents, and his older sister Pauline moved to Whittier, CA, where he lived until college. While working on his Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he met the love of his life, Kathryn, and they married on August 5, 1973. Warren and Kathryn moved to Arroyo Grande in 1975 and have been proud Central Coast residents ever since.

Warren first worked as a city planner for Grover City from 1975 to 1977. In 1977, he accepted a position as a planner for the County of San Luis Obispo, and he worked in that office until his retirement in 2011. He loved his work as a SLO County planner as it combined his interest in city planning and development with his passion for protecting the beauty and character of the Central Coast. Additionally, he volunteered for the Arroyo Grande Architectural Review Committee from 1993 to 2023, and he loved being deeply involved in the life of his city and working with other dedicated members of this community.

Warren and Kathryn had two sons, Andrew, born in 1983, and Lee, born in 1987. Warren was an involved and dedicated father. Andrew and Lee fondly remember going on hikes with Warren at Oso Flaco and Cerro San Luis frequently in their childhood. Andrew, his wife Brenda, and their three children (Oliver, 8; Everett, 7; and Vivienne, 3) live in Bourbonnais, IL, where both Andrew and Brenda work at Olivet Nazarene University. Lee and his spouse Wray live in Rancho Cordova, CA, where Lee and Wray are employees of the University of California at Davis Health System. Warren loved his children and grandchildren deeply, and he and Kathryn spent much of their post-retirement time traveling to Illinois and the Sacramento area to spend precious quality time with their family.

Warren lived an active life full of friends and adventures. Anyone who knew Warren would tell you how much he loved spending time with people talking, laughing, listening to music, and enjoying good food and wine. He was tremendously generous both in action and in spirit and lived to share his life and anything he enjoyed with his family and his long-time friends. From living in Southern California in the 1960s, he had a lifelong love for music and rarely went longer than a month or two between concerts. In the Central Coast, he had a tight circle of friends that went to as many concerts as possible and were a fixture at local events like the Live Oak Music Festival, the Avila Blues Festival, and the San Luis Obispo Blues Society concerts. Warren and Kathryn were avid travelers throughout their marriage, visiting a wide range of amazing locations, including New Zealand, the Panama Canal, St. Petersburg, Sweden, Scotland, Iceland, Argentina, and Machu Picchu in Peru. Recently, they had just completed a drive from California to Illinois that saw them visiting Zion National Park in Utah and Garden of the Gods and Pike’s Peak in Colorado. For Warren, life was meant to be lived adventurously and in community with the people he loved. He will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.

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