Kati Cesareo December 25th, 1983 - September 23rd, 2020

Born on Christmas Day in 1983, Kati was the “best present ever” to her family. She grew up in Belmar and Wall, New Jersey with her parents, Dave and Rose Cesareo, and siblings, Kerry and Dan. She was often surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins at big holiday gatherings and beach vacations in Hatteras, NC. Her lifelong love of surfing began with her bodyboard gang when she was very young and was sealed when her father took her out on her first surf at age 12. Along with her brother, Dan, she worked at Eastern Lines Surf Shop, where she also taught a next generation of surfers.

She graduated from Wall High School where she was known as a talented student, athlete, and artist. Her confidence and sense of style were evident even in early years when she bucked norms by shaving her head and sewing her own prom dresses. She went on to attend the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI, for textiles and a concentration in history, earning a BFA in textile design. There she grew beautiful, deep-rooted, lifelong friendships with friends that shared the value of living an artful life.

Her pursuit of consistent waves, warmer winters, and endless design inspiration led her to California where she began an esteemed and varied career in design for apparel, interiors, branding, and textiles, working at Billabong, Forms+Surfaces, Shaw, and One Workplace. Over the years, her designs and patterns were used by Billabong, Volcom, Etnies Girl, Lost, and Fox Racing. Her work has been featured in Interior Design magazine, Architect Magazine, Architectural Products magazine, SNAP, Architectural Record, and at NEOCON and Dwell on Design. Her designs can be seen everywhere from the elevators and floors of high-end hotels, event facilities, and hospitals — including UCSF where she received cancer care — to the stationery aisle of Target.

While in Los Angeles, she also enjoyed passion projects anchored in branding and lifestyle. She grew a business strongly rooted in Venice Beach culture by Creative Directing brand and product efforts for Ilan Dei Venice. Together with her husband, Kati also built a surf brand and physical retail space from the ground up and launched a custom motorcycle brand and shop.

She met her husband in California, Nate Occhipinti, a producer in advertising, who shared her surf-centric lifestyle and overall love for great design. With their sense of adventure, love of the sea, combined with their common heritage, they became known as the Little Italian Pirates in circles far and wide. They married in 2014 and lived in the canals in Venice, CA, before moving to Santa Cruz. Kati lived her short life to the fullest, filling it with travel, beauty, experiences, friends, and family.

She journeyed out into the world, traveling to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere. She was also committed to the inward journey, maintaining practices in yoga and mindfulness meditation, and becoming trained in reiki. She modeled healthy living and environmental sustainability. She loved to cook good food, dance, laugh, be in nature, and grow amazing food and plants (to which she would give names and ascribe personalities). She was the ideal wife partner, dear daughter, cherished sister, adoring aunt, much-loved cousin, niece, and steadfast friend.

She will be remembered for the incredible, positive energy she radiated into the world, oft captured by her megawatt smile. Her independent spirit lives on in those who loved her most. She is survived by her husband Nate Occhipinti, Santa Cruz CA; her parents, Dave and Rose Cesareo, Wall, NJ; her sister, Kerry Cesareo and her husband, Jim Woodworth and their children, Celia and Ian, Takoma Park, MD; her brother, Dan Cesareo and his wife, Cara and their children, Malia and Noah, Montclair, NJ; her in-laws, Barbara and Sam Occhipinti, Conway, SC, Lisa Occhipinti and Richard Ramer, Portland, OR, Ellen and Shannon Bene and their children Evie and Tristan, Portland, OR; many aunts, uncles, and cousins; and friends too many to count.