CV’s Robert Warren Remembered with Foundation

Castro Valley philanthropic leader Robert Warren is being remembered by a community foundation set up to help the youth of Castro Valley develop leadership skills and get a good start on their adult lives, things Warren worked for throughout his life.

Castro Valley philanthropic leader Robert Warren is himself being remembered by a community foundation set up to help the youth of Castro Valley develop leadership skills and get a good start on their adult lives, things Warren worked for throughout his life.

One of the Rob Warren Leadership Foundation's first contributions was $4,000 to Castro Valley High School's leadership program to send student leaders to a conference in Santa Barbara in May. There they will meet other student leaders from around the state and learn from each other as well as from conference instructors. 

Warren, who died in 2021, was an Alameda County assistant district attorney for 25 years and served on the Rowell Ranch and Sutter Health boards. He promoted and often led efforts by both organizations to give back to the community.

In his younger years, Warren was an Eagle Scout who graduated from Castro Valley High School and served as a congressional page for Rep. Tony Coelho. He got his political science and history degree from UC Davis before attending Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

He served on the Eden Foundation board for over a decade, helping build the new hospital that succeeded the old one where he had been born in 1968. 

 "The foundation strives to instill youths with the framework and skills to get on not only with their careers but for the rest of their lives," according to the foundation's Neil Diaz.

"He was very community-oriented and passionate about helping the children, so we thought it was important that he be remembered with a very local foundation devoted to that," Diaz added. He said that community members and his former co-workers came together to set up the foundation very quickly after Warren's passing.

Upon Warren's passing, U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell wrote a tribute on his public Facebook page that noted how adept Warren had been at introducing people throughout the community who had something in common.

"Though Rob is gone, these countless 'Friends of Rob' will continue on, grateful we knew him and that he brought together so many of us," Swalwell wrote.

One big fundraiser for the group is the Robert Warren Memorial Golf Tournament, normally held in May, around his birthday, at the Redwood Canyon Golf Course. This year, however, it's being held in August instead to give the course a chance to dry out fully from recent deluges, Diaz said.

He added that the foundation is hoping to put a monument to Warren somewhere at the golf course.

"He was an awful golfer," Diaz remembered. "But he really enjoyed it."

(Editor's Note: The Castro Valley Educational Foundation, a separate group, offers many different scholarships for Castro Valley students who would like to attend college.)