Paul Hardy Anderson

September 27, 1944-May 31, 2018

The vibrant life of Paul Hardy Anderson of San Carlos will be celebrated at a memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 14, at the Congregational Church of Belmont, 751 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont. Paul, 73, died May 31 at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital from complications of lung cancer. He was born Sept. 27, 1944, to the late Rev. Banes and Christine Anderson in Santa Maria, Calif. Rev. Anderson later became pastor of the Orestimba Presbyterian Church in Newman where their four children were reared. Paul graduated from Orestimba Union High School in Newman and the University of California at Davis and then started his MBA at the University of Texas Austin and completed it at UC Berkeley. A Navy veteran, he served two tours of duty on the U.S. Coral Sea and another as officer-in-charge on a Swift Boat on the Mekong River during the Vietnam War. He won several medals during the conflict, but he was also critical of the war. When his brother, Ross, resisted the draft, Paul wrote a powerful letter to his draft board, supporting his stance. He retired from the U.S. Navy Reserves as a Commander.

A lifelong learner and attentive listener, Paul studied leadership styles and consistently lobbied against hierarchical power structures in business and society. He read voraciously and widely. He discovered Progressive Christianity late in his religious life and embraced it with fervor. He led workshops at the Congregational Church of Belmont on ways to practice inclusive Christianity. He collected and kept friends in such diverse circles as the Friends of Edgewood Park in Redwood City and the Arguello Park Weeders in San Carlos, where he spent backbreaking hours pulling up invasive plants as a volunteer. He kept in touch with his high school, Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, Navy and former work buddies. They all shared camaraderie, thoughtful discussions and tall tales with him, to their mutual delight.

He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

He is survived by his wife Maura Whitmore of San Carlos; his daughter, Amy Stang (husband Zach) of Brentwood; his brothers, Ross (wife Mary Rothschild) of Port Townsend, Wash., and David (wife Sue) of Stockton; his sister, Carol Combs of Austin, Texas; grandsons Mason, Maverick and Brody Stang of Brentwood and Holden Anderson of Redwood City.

His wider family includes daughter-in-law Katrina Anderson; stepchildren Robert (Bubby) Whitmore of Durham, N.C.; Rose Whitmore of Oakland; Joan Cook (husband John) of Boulder Creek; Jill Hansen (husband Erik) of Los Gatos and their three daughters, Sarah, Nicole and Heather.

Paul’s first wife, Bette Brunette Anderson, died in 1994 and his son, Ryan Scott Anderson, in 2013.

The family prefers donations to the Sempervirens Fund (www.Sempervirens. org), or the Music Fund of the Congregational Church of Belmont, where Paul held nearly every lay position in the church over the past 40 years.