{"id":315582,"date":"2022-10-04T08:29:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T15:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=315582"},"modified":"2022-10-04T13:21:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T20:21:29","slug":"ocean-beach-celebrates-life-and-memories-of-kip-krueger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/ocean-beach-celebrates-life-and-memories-of-kip-krueger\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Beach celebrates the life and signs of Kip Krueger"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100 people attended an Oct. 1 celebration of life for Ocean Beach legend Kip Krueger, who was renowned for his prolific sign-making and social activism. More than a memorial observance, it was an affirmation of the enduring and righteous spirit of Ocean Beach.<\/p>\n

Family and friends packed Jim Bell\u2019s Compound at 4862 Voltaire St. to pay their respects for Kip Carl Krueger, aka Kip of Voltaire, 69, who died recently from lung cancer. Krueger was widely known, besides his sign painting, for co-founding The Green Store, which in 2015, changed its name to Ocean Beach Green Center after attaining nonprofit status. The Green Store was a hub for many activist activities in the 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n

Krueger was a gardener. He however was perhaps best known \u2013 and loved \u2013 for his philosophical quotes on wooden signs. Some were famous. Many were his own such as, \u201cThere are 3 important things in life. To be kind, to be kind & to be kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peace, the environment, and social justice were primary themes of Krueger\u2019s green activism, noted Colleen Dietzel, a lifelong friend, and former partner. \u201cKip was really involved with the Green Party,\u201d she said. \u201cHe ran for Congress (in 1994). He started making signs and it really took off \u2013 people just loved them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krueger was also on the Ocean Beach Planning Board and the Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

Dietzel noted Krueger moved from Los Angeles after telling friends \u201che was going to become an activist.\u201d Krueger did numerous jobs to support his activism including being a supervisor for recycling and tree-planting programs for the Urban Corps, which provides youth ages 18-26 with a second chance at high school education and paid job training on community and conservation projects.<\/p>\n

\"\"
More than 100 people attended a memorial observance for OB social activist Kip Krueger on Oct. 1. DAVE SCHWAB\/PENINSULA BEACON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Oct. 1 observance, Obecians spoke freely of Krueger. Some referred to his passing as being merely a \u201ctransition.\u201d Others praised his social activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was almost like a spiritual advisor,\u201d said one friend. \u201cHe had a good attitude and he was welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

A woman said she could always confide in Krueger adding she once told him she had some deep concerns for her son, to which he replied, \u201cHe\u2019s gonna be OK. And he is really OK right now. I\u2019m so grateful. Love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry that we\u2019ve lost a good friend,\u201d said another friend, a female dog walker who added, \u201cWe were blessed that odd signs (of Kip\u2019s) would show up. Our favorite is: \u201cCaution, grownups afoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

A young family man noted Krueger painted business logos of seagulls for him, which he still treasures. \u201cI can only tell you that he changed my life; told me to chill out, we\u2019re in OB,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at that sign every day and Kip is going to forever be in our lives. He was a wonderful man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKip was such an outstanding person, I was so fortunate to have met him,\u201d said another Obecian adding. \u201cHe knew everybody\u2019s name and everything about everybody. He was just a wonderful, unique person that we\u2019re really going to miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForever I\u2019ve been taken back by his amazing spirit,\u201d said another female friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really an activist. He got out there and did the work,\u201d said another man testifying. \u201cHis signs did the work because people are still smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Juan, a former neighbor of Krueger\u2019s, said he gladly volunteered to make and donate the wood pieces Krueger used to make his inspirational signs. \u201cWe all have a Kip sign, right?\u201d he asked. \u201cAnd not to get you jealous, but he said the signs he made for me were his favorites. One of them was \u2018Resist because oppression will still exist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend of Krueger\u2019s who works remotely said she got to know him by going on daily walks during her lunch breaks. \u201cHe always just brought a smile to my face,\u201d she said adding she made an Instagram for him, \u201cIt was something to talk about and connect with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

John McNab, speaking for all, said of Krueger: \u201cThere\u2019s an attitude in OB that Kip embodied. He was part of a generation. Ocean Beach is such an important place in San Diego. It sets an attitude that \u2018no, that\u2019s not right. We\u2019re going to do the right thing. And so you had the poet (Kip) out here saying, day after day, what matters. He and others like him were pillars of Ocean Beach. This is a changing of the guard. We need younger people to take on that same attitude.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 people attended an Oct. 1 celebration of life for Ocean Beach legend Kip Krueger, who was renowned for his prolific sign-making and social activism. More than a memorial observance, it was an affirmation of the enduring and righteous spirit of Ocean Beach. Family and friends packed Jim Bell\u2019s Compound at 4862 Voltaire […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":315583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"More than 100 people attended an Oct. 1 celebration of life for Ocean Beach legend Kip Krueger, who was renowned for his prolific sign-making and social activism. More than a memorial observance, it was an affirmation of the enduring and righteous spirit of Ocean Beach.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11561],"tags":[14257,12547],"class_list":["post-315582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon","tag-kip-krueger","tag-ocean-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}