For the past two years, Robin Weed-Brown has been the President of the Avila Beach Civic Association. Of course, this honor seems a bit underwhelming considering the Community Center has been closed for most of the time due to the pandemic, but it has been great for me to be able to turn to Robin when questions arose.

Robin moved from Minnesota to California in 1960. She grew up in Newport Beach, where her father was the newspaper publisher of the Orange Coast Daily Pilot. Her mother was a PE teacher and was very active as a volunteer in their community. They had many spirited discussions about current events around the dining room table as a family. 

Robin graduated from UC Irvine with a BA and got her Master’s in Library Science from San Jose State University. She worked in many different library systems up and down the State and was a Library Director and City Department Head for the City of Glendora when she retired in 2013.

Her family has long ties to SLO County. Her sister and her husband moved to SLO in the mid-70s to raise their family. Upon her father’s retirement in 1984, he and her mother moved to Indian Hill in the San Luis Bay Estates. After they passed, Robin moved into their home and has been very happy here.

Robin and Chris were married for 21 years until he passed in 2009. He was a musician, recording engineer, and computer nerd.

When she moved here, her first thought was how to get involved in her new community. She started volunteering at events at the Avila Beach Community Center, which was a great way to connect with others (hint, hint…we always need volunteers). She also volunteers at the Point San Luis Lighthouse, which is another great way to meet all types of people from near and far when they visit our area. She supports the Central Coast Aquarium and is a member of the Avila Bay Athletic Club. She is active in her church, SLO Unitarian Universalists, where she is a regional care coordinator, takes care of the church library, and is a greeter at services, among other activities.

Having grown up at the beach, she is totally at home here in Avila Beach. She loves all the fabulous friends and connections she has made over the last 8 years and feels it is a joy to be so close to her sister and brother-in-law, Margo and Tim Smith. 

She also is enjoying traveling now that she is retired. She selected the names for her two Woods Humane Society rescue kittens as a reflection of two of her many trips. Inka, a black striped domestic shorthair, is named for a trip to Machu Picchu, and Te’a, a brown striped cat, is named after a trip to Makatea, an Island in French Polynesian.

I asked Robin what she loved about Avila Beach, and she said the small beach community sense, the people, the beauty of nature, and being so close to the Bob Jones Trail, which she walks several times a week.