The Central Coast received a bit of a shock June 27 when we learned that Paul Teixeira, the 4^th District Supervisor for San Luis Obispo County, had passed away the night before from an apparent heart attack.

Teixeira, who was just 57, was serving as chair of the board of supervisors at the time of his death. Just yesterday, he and I were sitting around a table together at the monthly board meeting of the San Luis Obispo County Economic Vitality Corp.

He and I shared the view that a rising economic tide across the entire Central Coast was key to the region’s future. We had both been worried about whether the relatively slow recovery of the Santa Maria Valley was going to impose additional social costs on SLO, particularly the southern part of the county, which he represented.

A longtime resident of Nipomo, Teixeira had a history of working with organizations including Rotary, Jack’s Helping Hand and other nonprofits. He had a successful career managing an industrial products company in Santa Maria before becoming a county supervisor.

When Teixeira won a contested supervisor race in 2010, he seemed tailor-made for the role.

Teixeira was a man of good humor who carried on the moderate but definitely pro-business political tradition of the Nipomo-Arroyo Grande-Five Cities area. As reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, his trademark quote was “I can get along with anybody.”