Guy Israel Hoover was born in Croton, Licking County, Ohio, on November 12, 1872. His parents were Giles and Lucretia Green Hoover, and he was next to the youngest of ten children, the first child having died in infancy; nine children survived and lived to adulthood. Flora G. Hoover, Guy's older sister was a schoolteacher and helped him attend Denison University in Granville, Ohio, as well as Hiram College, from which he graduated to become a minister in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. After marriage to Virginia Dillinger on July 12, 1900, he became the father of two children, Lyman on August 5, 1901 and Florence Mildred on January 21, 1903.

The young family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Guy became a student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In addition to his studies he served, in succession, as minister of two Christian Churches and graduated with both a Bachelor and a Master of Divinity degree. The family then moved to Tipton, Indiana, where an outstanding Christian Church became his first and only full-time pastorate. G.I. Hoover, as he was often called, decided to become part of the Indiana State work and later the national work of the Disciples of Christ. The family moved to Indianapolis a short time before the birth of Esther Virginia on May 20, 1914. Mary Genevieve had been born in Tipton on July 6, 1910. Robert Archibald, the last of the five Hoover children, was born on July 2, 1917. His mother was forty-two years old and his father almost forty-five.

In his work during those years, Guy traveled a great deal by car or by train. A Ford roadster was supplied for his use as a county evangelist. By the time, the family could afford to buy an automobile his hearing had become much worse so the children drove the Buick he bought for them.

The family home for many years was located at 5324 Julian Avenue in Irvington on the east side of Indianapolis. Guy Hoover served as State Secretary of the Indiana Christian Missionary Society for fourteen years with his office downtown.

He had a good sense of humor and was very conscientious about paying bills on time. He wanted his children to have a happy home and he worked hard to provide it for them. Lyman's twenty years with the Y.M.C.A. in China and Robert's three years over seas during World War II meant a great deal to him.