Crime & Safety

CHP Remembers Fallen Officer, 78 Years Later

Donald Hoover died on his CHP motorcycle while on duty on this date in 1934.

It's been 78 years since Donald Hoover died at the end of his California Highway Patrol shift in 1934, but time has far from erased his memory from the consciousness of contemporary patrol officers. 

On Friday, the anniversary of Hoover's death, the Santa Cruz CHP lowered its flag to half-mast, and all officers wore Tribute of Mourning ribbons in remembrance.

On the evening of Aug. 31, 1934, Hoover was riding his motorcycle home on what is now Soquel Drive (then the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Highway).

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According to the CHP, as he reached Commercial Way (Slaughterhouse Curve in 1934), "a vehicle turned from an adjacent roadway into the path of Officer Hoover ... [who] struck the vehicle, rendering him unconscious, and he died a short time later from injuries he sustained in the collision."

Hoover was just 31. He had been with the CHP since he was 26, when his wife, Gladys, gave birth to their son, Richard.

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For several years, the CHP has been in the process of dedicating a portion of Highway 1 to Hoover. Because finalizing the dedication is still in the legislation process, and Richard Hoover was in poor health, the CHP .

He died just weeks later, in June, Officer Sarah Jackson said. At the time of his death, Richard Hoover, 84, had been married to his wife Jean for 30 years. 


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