Paul Hostetter

1945 - 2019

Paul Hostetter
December 2, 1945 - February 13, 2019
Bonny Doon
Paul Hostetter, who for five decades helped foster the robust Santa Cruz County craft and music scenes, died of cancer on February 13, at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. He was 73.
Although Paul was revered for his work in lutherie—the centuries-old craft of making and restoring stringed instruments—he also is also credited with widening the horizons of music lovers, mentoring a generation of artisan guitar builders, and playing a role in deflecting unsuitable development on the north coast and in Bonny Doon, where he settled in 1970.
"Our community was richer for having Paul's energy, integrity, and drive," said Lance Linares, former CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. "Having his participation—on stage, in the shop, or just in conversation—always pushed everyone to work a little harder." Or as columnist Bruce Bratton wrote in a brief remembrance, "As a musician, activist and critic, Paul gave more of himself to the world than just about anyone I have ever known."
An early board member and on-air programmer at station KUSP-FM, Paul helped introduce the Monterey Bay region to the untamed sounds of what's now known as world music—from haunting Malagasy flute melodies to hypnotic West African harp and guitar duos to otherworldly Mongolian throat singing. "He made you think," Linares said.
At the same time, Paul's deep insight into guitar lore and design led him to collaborate during the founding of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, in 1976. Ideas and specs he drew from a vintage Gibson Nick Lucas Special helped shape the company's "H" model, a small guitar with a big sound. According to company owner Richard Hoover, some 1,720 H model guitars are now in the hands of players.
"I'm extremely proud of my association with Paul," Hoover said. "He was a visionary. He helped make Santa Cruz a vortex of creativity. He didn't promote himself, he promoted our community and our talents. There are people around the world who only know of Santa Cruz through his work."
Paul first found his way to Ben Lomond Mountain in 1967, on pre-dawn rambles from San Francisco, then returned to attend Monteith College, a liberal arts branch of Wayne State University, in the city where he was born and raised: Detroit, Michigan. He moved back here to stay a few years later.
He maintained a historic home, originally built in the mid-1800s, and a workshop in the redwoods of Bonny Doon, a place he strove to protect from developments he considered too intrusive for the sparsely populated community—a nuclear power plant in Davenport, a sprawling goat ranch on an unspoiled marine terrace, an overly ambitious trail system.
"I greeted my new environment here with the notion that something could actually be done about affecting where you lived and how things went there," Paul recalled in a 2009 video by documentarian Karla Hutton. He nodded to his friendships with notable neighbors: UCSC founding chancellor Dean McHenry, Cowell College provost Page Smith and his wife, Eloise, and science fiction author Robert Heinlein, who would take breaks from writing to visit him, at times helping fire the raku pottery that Paul made in his studio.
As a guitarist, he helped spread traditional music throughout the county. In performances with his first wife, Irene Herrmann, he regularly accompanied Italian-Swiss mandolinist Ricardo Tunsi and Sicilian-born mandolinist Tony Flores from the '70s through the '90s. Many of their tunes are now played around the West. Paul and Irene had two daughters, Kaethe, now age 35, and Marandi, age 33, both accomplished violinists.
In 2000 Paul got together with his wife to be, Robin Petrie, a musician from the Bay Area. For nearly two decades she and Paul played as a duo and in various acoustic bands in the greater Bay Area and occasionally in Santa Cruz. Robin is a recording artist on the Gourd Music label of Santa Cruz.
Paul is survived by his brother, Mark Hostetter, in San Diego; his sister, Janet Hostetter, in St. Paul, Minnesota, his wife of 18 years, Robin Petrie, and his daughters Kaethe and Marandi. A Santa Cruz celebration of Hostetter's life is being planned; check his Facebook page for updates. A longer obituary, from the San Francisco Chronicle, is online at legacy.com.


View the online memorial for Paul Hostetter