Record-setting bicyclist killed in crash



vancouver25

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Record-setting bicyclist killed in crash
Dan Thomas, a middle school teacher, is remembered for his passion to excel.


ATHLETE: Dan Thomas, a biking enthusiast who taught at Columbus Tustin Middle School, died Monday in an accident in Irvine.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CATHY RUDDELL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




By GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register


IRVINE – They were to marry in July in Paris, then bike through Europe on their honeymoon.

Two teachers in love.

Fifteen days ago they bought a three-bedroom house in Whispering Glen. At about 5 p.m. Monday, the avid cyclists went for a ride in their new neighborhood.

"Honey, I'm getting cold - I'm gonna put on a jacket," Cathy Ruddell, 44, said as she stopped on a hill on Shady Canyon Drive. Her fiancé, Dan Thomas, 55, rode ahead of her.

As the 30-year veteran teacher and champion street racer returned to rejoin Ruddell, he veered off the shoulder and into the traffic lane.

A 1991 Toyota pickup hit Thomas, police said.

Ruddell, a math and science teacher at Columbus Tustin Middle School - where Thomas also taught - rushed to him.

"Oh, baby," she said.

The woman Thomas had proposed to on Christmas Day felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

Thomas' custom-made, $7,500 silver Serotta road- racing bike lay in pieces, the seat shorn in half. His helmet lay in the weeds.

"The doctor said it happened instantly," Ruddell recalled Tuesday, as students and teachers at Columbus Tustin mourned Thomas, who previously taught for 20 years at Foothill High School in Tustin.

"The doctor said that if death could be merciful, his was merciful."

Funeral services are pending. The driver of the pickup, Alfredo Aceves, 32, of Santa Ana, was not injured or cited. An investigation continues.

Thomas, who has taught at Columbus Tustin since 1995, wasn't born an uber-cyclist. He is a former runner and cross- country coaching guru who earned his cycling distinction over the last few years as a member of the Veloce Santiago club, affiliated with Santiago Cycling in Tustin.

"He was an extremely kind, soft-spoken person," shop owner Robert Kahler recalled. "But he was a tremendous athlete, extremely intense - kind of an obsessive person. When he decided to do something, he would go into it whole hog."

Thomas won seven gold medals at the World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, in 2001 and 2002, and still holds the record for cycling 75 miles to the top of Big Bear - a climb of 12,000 feet - in 5 hours and 12 minutes.

The Orange County native was overweight as a child. As a seventh-grade social-sciences and English teacher at Columbus Tustin, Thomas liked to remind his students about the importance of staying active and healthy.

"Dan's zest for life and for fitness and a healthy lifestyle was an example for everyone," said Joanne Motter, counselor for the 830 students at Columbus Tustin Middle School, who were told about his death Tuesday morning.

According to Motter, one student said: "Maybe he's in a better place, where he can be biking all the time."

Open house at Columbus Tustin is Thursday. Thomas was preparing to hang up students' journals for the big night, Principal Tim O'Donoghue said.

"Everyone's in kind of shock - it's like losing a friend," O'Donoghue said. "He was a very, very intelligent man ... an exceptional teacher of writing.

"Students saw him as a pretty challenging teacher. He had pretty high standards in his class."

Thomas' high standards also applied to his athletic pursuits.

He excelled at football at Loara High School in Anaheim, and was offered an out- of-state college scholarship.

But he turned the scholarship down to stay near his family, and graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a master's degree in English.

In 1974, the 6-foot, 185- pound Thomas began a distinguished career at Foothill High School, where he served as chairman of the English department and coached football, track and cross-country.

Twice he was named girls cross-country coach of the year - a statewide honor.

Thomas' son Ryan, 27, recalled a father who loved camping and other outdoor activities.

Ryan's sister, Larisa, now 33, was among family members who would accompany Thomas on fishing trips to Baja California.

Thomas also is survived by two brothers, Craig and Rusty, his father, Bill, and his stepmother, Betty.

Ruddell said she will remember her fiancé as a romantic man who lived a full life.

"He had such an ability to just enjoy every ounce of life," she said. "He would squeeze the juice out of the orange."
 
I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the family of my High School English Composition teacher, Daniel Thomas. This note describes his affect on my life, and how I missed telling him personally by just a few months.

Most all of us have at least one teacher who changed the course of our lives. As a junior at Foothill HS in Santa Ana, circa 1974, Dan Thomas taught an English Composition course to juniors and seniors. I owe him a great debt of gratitude as he discovered my knack for creative writing, which ultimately led me to write stories, publish a highly-lauded position paper on modern management technique for implementing Quality/Productivity Improvement Programs at the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. It was a paper and presentation I developed which was given at the Juran Institute’s annual conference. It was through Dan’s mentoring which put me on this track to gaining a good reputation for being able to develop winning aerospace industry award nominations, executive leadership speeches, and academic papers that served me well throughout my university studies. In fact, I owe my near perfect GPA of 3.94 in my Bachelors of Science program in college due to Dan’s guidance, as I received many favorable comments from my professors on the many papers I wrote.

Years after I graduated HS in 1975, I wanted to thank him personally for his influence. I believe it was in the mid 1990s, and I posted my thanks to Dan to an Orange County web blog in hopes of contacting him. As unpredictable as life often is, upon reading my comment, a thoughtful person informed me that he had just been killed in a bicycle versus auto accident only a few months, earlier. I was devastated, wishing I had reached out earlier. Dan had a knack that endeared him to his HS students as he didn't appear to be anything like his fellow teachers. Dan looked like the proverbial surfer-dude, which gave him privileged access to the often simple hearts and minds of the students he taught. He was a quiet sort, and before reading this blog, I was unaware of his cycling accomplishments. How impressive! So, I wanted to put it out there once again and say how thankful I am to have had him for a teacher. I still have that original story he graded, that awarded me my first "A" in English. This would serve as the first in a long line of good marks in English. As I said many of us have had a least one teacher who made the difference; for me, it was Dan. He discovered the "writer" in me, this despite not being a terribly bright English Grammar star; a condition that I attribute to the approach taken by his contemporaries who quite sadly have dissuaded many students from developing a command of the written word. Once on the path of writing, I found that by practicing my newly discovered craft, that it taught me more about grammar and style than a lifetime of traditional English courses could ever have. Since then I have since distinguished myself in this capacity both personally and professionally. I hope that this note will reach Dan’s family, so they have yet another testament to what a truly exceptional teacher he was.

The moral to this is: If there is something that you have been waiting for the right time to tell someone, particularly if it conveys thanks, or fond feelings, don’t wait! Life is way too unpredictable to leave stuff up to chance.

RIP Daniel Thomas. You were in a league of your own!

It is my hope that this note finds its way to his family, just to let them know of yet another testament to Dan's affect on a life:

Landerkhan at earthlink dot net

Andrew Bolander
 
:rolleyes:
vancouver25 said:
Record-setting bicyclist killed in crash
Dan Thomas, a middle school teacher, is remembered for his passion to excel.


ATHLETE: Dan Thomas, a biking enthusiast who taught at Columbus Tustin Middle School, died Monday in an accident in Irvine.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CATHY RUDDELL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was a Junior at Foothill High, and a student of Mr. Thompson's. He inspired me to write, such that I have published a few papers for formidable companies, and am aspiring to write stories. Dan was an extraordinary teacher. I wasn't a great student, but he and he alnoe encouraged me to write. To say that he, above all other English teachers, inspired me, would be an understatement. I wanted to thank him personally, but due to his death just a few months prior, I was unable. Let this note serve to thank Daniel Thomas for his influence in my life. He gave me the confidence I needed to take pen to paper and express myself. He will always remain the teacher who influenced me most. God Speed, Daniel.


By GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register


IRVINE – They were to marry in July in Paris, then bike through Europe on their honeymoon.

Two teachers in love.

Fifteen days ago they bought a three-bedroom house in Whispering Glen. At about 5 p.m. Monday, the avid cyclists went for a ride in their new neighborhood.

"Honey, I'm getting cold - I'm gonna put on a jacket," Cathy Ruddell, 44, said as she stopped on a hill on Shady Canyon Drive. Her fiancé, Dan Thomas, 55, rode ahead of her.

As the 30-year veteran teacher and champion street racer returned to rejoin Ruddell, he veered off the shoulder and into the traffic lane.

A 1991 Toyota pickup hit Thomas, police said.

Ruddell, a math and science teacher at Columbus Tustin Middle School - where Thomas also taught - rushed to him.

"Oh, baby," she said.

The woman Thomas had proposed to on Christmas Day felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

Thomas' custom-made, $7,500 silver Serotta road- racing bike lay in pieces, the seat shorn in half. His helmet lay in the weeds.

"The doctor said it happened instantly," Ruddell recalled Tuesday, as students and teachers at Columbus Tustin mourned Thomas, who previously taught for 20 years at Foothill High School in Tustin.

"The doctor said that if death could be merciful, his was merciful."

Funeral services are pending. The driver of the pickup, Alfredo Aceves, 32, of Santa Ana, was not injured or cited. An investigation continues.

Thomas, who has taught at Columbus Tustin since 1995, wasn't born an uber-cyclist. He is a former runner and cross- country coaching guru who earned his cycling distinction over the last few years as a member of the Veloce Santiago club, affiliated with Santiago Cycling in Tustin.

"He was an extremely kind, soft-spoken person," shop owner Robert Kahler recalled. "But he was a tremendous athlete, extremely intense - kind of an obsessive person. When he decided to do something, he would go into it whole hog."

Thomas won seven gold medals at the World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, in 2001 and 2002, and still holds the record for cycling 75 miles to the top of Big Bear - a climb of 12,000 feet - in 5 hours and 12 minutes.

The Orange County native was overweight as a child. As a seventh-grade social-sciences and English teacher at Columbus Tustin, Thomas liked to remind his students about the importance of staying active and healthy.

"Dan's zest for life and for fitness and a healthy lifestyle was an example for everyone," said Joanne Motter, counselor for the 830 students at Columbus Tustin Middle School, who were told about his death Tuesday morning.

According to Motter, one student said: "Maybe he's in a better place, where he can be biking all the time."

Open house at Columbus Tustin is Thursday. Thomas was preparing to hang up students' journals for the big night, Principal Tim O'Donoghue said.

"Everyone's in kind of shock - it's like losing a friend," O'Donoghue said. "He was a very, very intelligent man ... an exceptional teacher of writing.

"Students saw him as a pretty challenging teacher. He had pretty high standards in his class."

Thomas' high standards also applied to his athletic pursuits.

He excelled at football at Loara High School in Anaheim, and was offered an out- of-state college scholarship.

But he turned the scholarship down to stay near his family, and graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a master's degree in English.

In 1974, the 6-foot, 185- pound Thomas began a distinguished career at Foothill High School, where he served as chairman of the English department and coached football, track and cross-country.

Twice he was named girls cross-country coach of the year - a statewide honor.

Thomas' son Ryan, 27, recalled a father who loved camping and other outdoor activities.

Ryan's sister, Larisa, now 33, was among family members who would accompany Thomas on fishing trips to Baja California.

Thomas also is survived by two brothers, Craig and Rusty, his father, Bill, and his stepmother, Betty.

Ruddell said she will remember her fiancé as a romantic man who lived a full life.

"He had such an ability to just enjoy every ounce of life," she said. "He would squeeze the juice out of the orange."
 
I would dearly like to get in contact with Mr. Thomas' family. He was such an inspiration to me that words cannot nearly do justice. Please, if anyone knows how to make the connection with the Thomas family, I would be most appreciative.

former Foothill High student,
Andrew Bolander ;)
email: [email protected]
 
landerkhan said:
I would dearly like to get in contact with Mr. Thomas' family. He was such an inspiration to me that words cannot nearly do justice. Please, if anyone knows how to make the connection with the Thomas family, I would be most appreciative.

former Foothill High student,
Andrew Bolander ;)
email: [email protected]

Well, I'll bet you'd have more luck on Facebook, as it seems everyone and their parole officer is on that site. If nothing else, I bet you could find contact info through someone, on Facebook, that went to or worked (or works) at that school.
 

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