02-Nov-1999 Tuesday
Robert and Mary Rice were retirees from La Mesa who liked to travel
around
the world and were eager to do a little walking in Egypt and Israel.
Gavin Stearns was the dutiful son who called his
parents in Chula Vista
before leaving for Egypt with his Bay Area friends.
The computer specialist
was looking forward to sailing down the Nile.
Yesterday, their names appeared on the list of 217 passengers who
were
aboard EgyptAir Flight 990 when it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean
on
Sunday.
At least seven passengers with San Diego ties died in the
early morning
crash off Nantucket Island.
The others who lived here
were David and Betty Van Buskirk of the College
Area and Jerry and Barbara
Freeman of Alpine. Relatives confirmed they were
aboard Flight 990 on Sunday
as the names of some of the passengers
gradually became known.
The
Van Buskirks, who were retired from San Diego city schools, and the
Freemans
were longtime friends who were traveling together to the Middle
East.
Mourners left flowers and cards in front of their homes yesterday.
San
Diego Mayor Susan Golding ended yesterday's City Council meeting
with
prayers for the families of those who perished.
At the Islamic
Center of San Diego, prayers of remembrance were being
offered in Arabic for
the victims and their families at each of the five
daily worship services.
The congregation in Clairemont includes about 200 Egyptians, none of
whom
had friends or family aboard the jetliner.
Charlotte and Ron
Stanley initially had ruled out that their son,
Gavin
Stearns, was on Flight 990.
And then the
Sunday afternoon phone calls came.
First, it was the Boston-based travel
agency that booked her son's flight,
followed by calls from EgyptAir and the
U.S. State Department. Stearns, of
Los Altos, had been aboard the ill-fated
flight.
"I've lost my son," Charlotte Stanley said in an anguished
voice. "Nothing
is going to bring him back."
She and her husband of
33 years, Ron Stanley, consoled each other yesterday
morning inside their
home, where Stearns grew up.
Stearns, 40, graduated from Hilltop High
School and soon after embarked on
a career in computers that took him to
Boston and in recent years to the
Silicon Valley, where he worked for Aspect
Development as a computerized
storage specialist.
"He was very
generous," said Charlotte Stanley. "He was full of love and
fun."
Stearns was traveling with his longtime friend and roommate, Paula
Barnes;
her boyfriend, Kurt Schwenk; and members of the Barnes and
Schwenk
families.
Stearns called his parents from his home in Los
Altos on Saturday just as
he was about to leave for the airport.
"Bring me a pyramid," Charlotte Stanley said she told him.
"You
got it. I love you a lot," she said her son replied.
Stearns also is
survived by his sister, Lisa.
In their twilight years, Robert and Mary
Rice frequently traveled across
the world to countries such as Japan,
Australia, Russia, England, and had
competed in race-walking events.
Robert Rice recently celebrated his 85th birthday and was recovering
from
surgery. But nothing could suppress his enthusiasm for seeing the world
and
joining his wife of more than three decades for an early morning walk
at
the Grossmont Shopping Center.
"That's what kept them going," said
longtime friend Ernest Strzelecki, 71,
of Lemon Grove. "The traveling and the
walking."
Strzelecki and his wife were planning to visit Spain with the
Rices next
April. The couples regularly celebrated holidays together and
attended the
Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church in El Cajon.
The
Rices had grown children from previous marriages who live outside San
Diego
County and could not be reached yesterday.
Mary Rice, 79, had been a
volunteer at the Alzheimer's Association respite
care program since 1991. The
retired nurse took care of Alzheimer's
patients several hours a month in
their homes. In 1996, she represented the
Alzheimer's Association by carrying
the Olympic Torch for part of its
journey through San Diego as the torch made
its way to Atlanta.