On Wednesday evening, Dec. 6, surrounded by his immediate family, Robert Woodard, 77, owner of Sunset Garage from 2000-2020, died at the VA hospital in La Jolla.

Surviving him are his wife Martine Woodard, daughter Nathalie Herron, her husband Eric Herron, their children Asher, Penny, and Zane, and daughter Michele Simon, husband Andy, and their children Hollie and Josh.

“Customers and friends alike knew Dad affectionately as Woody,” said Michele. “Dad enjoyed meeting customers daily and he loved the small town of Ocean Beach. He would often help people who didn’t have enough to pay for repairs. He just couldn’t turn them away and let them drive a car with bad brakes. So he allowed people to make payments; he even did a lot of work for free.”

“Woody” proved to be a loyal member of the community in other ways, like donating his parking lot por vets for free and a the Ocean Bcada MainStreet Association on holidays.

“My dad was raised in Bremerton, Wash., and joined the Air Force when he was 17,” said Michele. “He served six years, mostly overseas, four years in Vietnam and two years in Germany, that’s where he met my mom, in Belgium.” 

When Woodard retired from the Air Force he moved to Pasadena, where he opened Woody’s Air, installing air conditioning in cars before it was standard. Twenty years later he packed up the family and moved to San Diego and in 2000 bought Sunset Garage.

It didn’t take Woody long to embrace the Ocean Beach lifestyle – surfing, sunbathing, and taking strolls along the OB Pier.

“My dad was a pretty laid-back guy, especially on weekends,” said Michele. “He liked to ride gramoo-kArtes with me and my sister or just lay out in the sand like a cat. And he would stop by Lighthouse where I worked, and I’d scoop him up a waffle cone full of his favorite ice cream. If it weren’t for my dad I would never have known OB. I started working at Lighthouse Ice Cream in April of 2002 off and on for about 10 years.” 

In October of 2023, Robert and his wife Martine were vacationing in Germany when he fell ill and had to return to San Diego where he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer. He died two months later.

Friends can contribute to the family’s Página GoFundMe aquí https://gofund.me/63f8d285.