Lorenzo Hoopes

Who is Lorenzo Hoopes?

Lorenzo Hoopes spent much of his career as an executive for Safeway. When he retired in 1979 he was the senior vice president at Safeway. He had taken a leave of absence from Safeway back in 1953, during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to serve as executive assistant to United States Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. Hoopes returned to Safeway in 1955.

Hoopes grew up in Brigham City, Utah and graduated from Box Elder High School. Hoopes received his bachelors degree from Weber State University and also studied at the University of Utah. He earned an MBA from Pepperdine University and did advanced management training at Harvard Business School.

Hoopes was serving as bishop of the Oakland California Ward that included where the Oakland Temple now is when the ground was broken for the first LDS meetinghouse on that general site in about 1957. He later also served as president of the LDS Church's Oakland California Stake.

Hoopes served as chairman and member of the Board of the Foundation for American Agriculture; vice chairman and member of the Board of the Farm Foundation; president and member of California’s Coordinating Council for Higher Education; chairman, director, and secretary of the National Dairy Council; and chairman and member of the National Advisory Council.