On Monday morning, I learned that Kurt Kupper had finally tossed in the towel after his last fight.
I had the privilege of watching this cagey slugger in the SLO County Board of Supervisors arena for many years. He took a lot of punches, but he stayed upright long enough to earn Hall of Fame status in our pantheon of local environmental champs.
In 1972, Kurt was a fresh-faced novice when he first fought his way into our political arena, still a Cal Poly student when he learned that two incumbent county supervisors had stepped out of the ring. He approached Richard Krejsa, a Cal Poly biology professor, who had already filed for one of the seats. Dr. Krejsa recalled their first meeting:
“We met in a coffee shop. … It was the last day to register as a candidate, and Kurt didn’t exactly know what to do. I told him that he’d first have to pay a registration fee and fill out some paperwork by 5 p.m. that day—but Kurt had no cash! So I loaned him $25. … We both won our respective elections and spent the next eight years together as the two ‘slow-growth’ supervisors.”
In 1977, the county hired me as a rookie planner, and I took a seat to watch the supervisors’ slugfest. Kupper and Krejsa formed a solid team, and though they were most often on the losing end of a 3-2 vote, they found ways to outmaneuver their opponents with fancy footwork. Krejsa continues:
“In order to get some level of joy in this job, Kurt and I would play games with the board majority: During a meeting discussion and vote, I would take an extreme slow-growth position. Then Kurt would take a less extreme position, commenting on how far I had gone left. Our combined maneuver would often cause one of the other supervisors to swing his (still “yes”) vote, but more towards the middle.”
We can thank the Kupper-Krejsa duo specifically for saving Pirates Cove from an outrageous development, a proposed condominium project designed as a hilltop “Italian villa” that would have dominated the entire top of Ontario Grade. Kurt once told me privately that he and Krejsa couldn’t pull a knockout punch against that project, but they managed to outwit their conservative colleagues by getting conditions that effectively killed the project. Nothing special: They made the developer prove the availability of essential services, long before these became standard conditions for any such project.
After taking office in 1972, Kupper and Krejsa appointed the first women to our county Planning Commission: Krejsa added Anna Alexander to that body, and Kupper appointed Dr. Jacqueline Hynes. Professor Emeritus Dan Krieger regards these appointments as “arguably the first environmental move made by the Board of Supervisors in its 121-year history.”
In 1978, Hynes was elevated to the regional Coastal Commission; to replace her, Kupper nominated Evelyn Delany of Pismo Beach. Delany’s nomination provoked loud objections from the conservative supervisors. I witnessed a testy exchange where Kupper patiently but firmly stared them down: He reminded his colleagues that he’d never objected to their appointees even when he found them objectionable. Ultimately, Kurt scored a TKO.
Kupper and Krejsa forged alliances with heavyweights like Mothers for Peace, the Sierra Club, and the Abalone Alliance to oppose licensing Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Thousands were arrested at local rallies against Diablo, as the movement grew to become the nation’s largest campaign of civil disobedience since the Vietnam War. Krejsa and other Cal Poly faculty and staff were arrested for crossing the “blue line” onto PG&E property. They spent several days behind bars before the county finally called the fight and released them.
As their second terms on the board drew to a close in 1980, Krejsa decided to return to Cal Poly. In fact, he retired a few months early, staying just long enough to allow Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint Krejsa’s replacement: Local “golden boy” Jeff Jorgensen.
Kupper and Jorgensen faced stiff challenges against well-muscled opponents, but both came out with their gloves raised in victory: Kupper avoided a runoff by 212 votes. Jorgensen slugged it out against SLO Mayor Ron Dunin and won by 19 votes.
After Kupper retired in 1984, he went on to lead ECOSLO and founded Rock Solid Recycling, the first eco-business in SLO County.
Delany succeeded him in the 3rd District and served 12 more years. She and Jorgensen used the same one-two punch that Kupper and Krejsa had perfected. Their colleagues would have approved every project that came before the board, but these two environmentalists were able to prevent some of the worst excesses of development. Delany, for example, won concessions from the Avila Hot Springs project to secure a right of way along SLO Creek for the Bob Jones Trail.
Long after the bell sounded on their terms as supervisors, Kupper and Krejsa continued to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” in local politics. Elected officials like Bruce Gibson, Jimmy Paulding, and both Dawns—indeed, any aspiring boxer out there—take note: You’re standing on the shoulders of Kupper and Krejsa. Environmentalists everywhere should be at Kurt’s services early this summer. I know I will. ∆
John Ashbaugh knows he’s not in the same league as heavyweights like Kupper and Krejsa. Send comments for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2026.
What a great article, by John Ashbaugh, about the legacy of both Kurt Kupper and Dr. Richard Krejsa, as some of our best environmentalist County Supervisors.
I remember these men vividly, being in high school in the early 70s. They became our local environmental heros, after the first massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, which began the tradition of Earth Day, nationwide.
And I remember those Diablo Canyon Protests where Krejsa and Kupper were arrested, along with many other local clergy and fellow environmentalists. Though I did not cross of the “blue line” and was able to go home those nights.
The protest bands, that set up on the beach were great!
A big thanks to John Ashbaugh for this excellent history, with all of these details of how those two County Supervisors were so effective, with their tag-team strategies.