Class of 1937
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Bob Grice, 87
ENCINITAS – Bob Grice, 87, died Friday, March 30, 2007.
He was born Jan. 17, 1920, on the family homestead which is now part of the Encinitas Ranch Golf Course. He operated the first car wash in Encinitas, worked at Encinitas Pharmacy and Ted Wright’s Ideal Market. He graduated from San Dieguito High School in the first class of 1937. He attended San Diego State College and worked at the Del Mar Turf Club.
He served in the U.S. Army in the European Theater and was awarded the Bronze Star. He was the owner of the Grice, Lund and Tarkington accounting office in Encinitas, Escondido and Carlsbad. He served on the boards of the Society of California Accountants, San Dieguito Union High School, the California State Board of Accountancy, the San Dieguito National Bank, Forest Home Christian Conference Center, Scripps Memorial Hospital Advisory Board and the San Dieguito Heritage Museum.
He was the grand marshal of the Encinitas Christmas Parade in 2006.
Mr. Grice is survived by his wife of 50 years, Jan Grice; daughters Darlene Sottile and Barbara Grice; sons and daughters-in-law Richard and Carolyn Grice, Bruce and Rhonda Grice and Rob and Cathy Grice; sister Bettie Wolfe; nine granddaughters; and nine great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at the Carlsbad Community Church, 3175 Harding St. in Carlsbad.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Young Life, 845 Santa Fe Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024, or San Dieguito Heritage Museum, P.O. Box 230851, Encinitas, CA 92023.
Herschell Larrick: Decorated pilot ran family’s lumberyard
Herschell Larrick might have been pushing his luck when he kept volunteering for combat missions as a World War II fighter pilot.
After completing the normal quota of 25 assignments, he took on another 25. Then more after that. On his 59th assignment, flying air support for Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army in France, the future Air Force major was shot down and crash-landed.
Anti-aircraft fire blew a wing off his P-47, and shrapnel bloodied his face.
“He couldn’t see out of his goggles,” said his brother, Charles.
The wounds, which occurred not long after a D-Day mission, marked the end of Maj. Larrick’s World War II combat. But he had already been awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts and an Air Medal with 11 Oak Leaf Clusters.
Maj. Larrick joined his family’s retail lumber business in Solana Beach after World War II, only to be recalled to active duty during the Korean War, where he flew 70 ground-support missions.
He died of cancer Feb. 19 at his home in Borrego Springs, his family said. He was 85.
When he joined the Army Air Forces in November 1941, Maj. Larrick was so anxious to fly that was afraid to complain about the two right shoes he was issued in flight training.
“He didn’t want to miss any training,” his brother said. “So he wore two right shoes until they gave him one for his left foot.”
One of Maj. Larrick’s first missions was aborted when his bomb-laden plane plowed an oversized furrow in a farmer’s field. Based in England, he was on a mission leaving England and was to cross the English Channel but barely made it past the runway before the engine failed.
“He was slightly injured,” his brother said. “After a couple of weeks in the hospital, he returned to action just in time for D-Day.”
During the June 6, 1944, landing at Normandy, Maj. Larrick flew six hours’ worth of missions.
His total military flight log, including the Korean War and four years in the California Air National Guard, totaled 2,500 hours, including 306 of them in combat.
Maj. Larrick was born Dec. 13, 1920, in San Diego and grew up in the Solana Beach area. In 1937, he was part of in the first graduating class at San Dieguito High School.
The students attended class in tents before the school was completed in January 1938 to the specifications of architect Lilian J. Rice.
Maj. Larrick’s father, pioneering businessman H.G. Larrick, was elected the first president of the San Dieguito Union High School District board.
A pioneering businessman, H.G. Larrick founded the Lumber and Builders Supply Co. in Solana Beach in 1923, and it soon became the largest employer in the community’s business district. Maj. Larrick left Occidental College after two years to join the military.
After World War II duty with the 9th Tactical Air Command, he bought a small private plane, which he kept at the former Del Mar Airport.
Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, Maj. Larrick flew P-51s. He would go on to fly F-86 jet fighters in the Air National Guard, spending his weekends at an Ontario base until 1958 while tending to the family business Monday through Friday.
When his father died in 1963, Maj. Larrick became president of the lumber company. During the next two decades it would became one of the largest retail lumber suppliers in the county.
By the time Maj. Larrick sold it in 1983, it employed 130 and occupied property along Lomas Santa Fe Drive North that later became the site of the Amtrak train station.
In retirement, he enjoyed visiting Baja resorts — by airplane, vehicle or mule — and indulging his green thumb on his Borrego Springs property.
“Each year his cactus garden was included as part of the flower festival,” his brother said. “It was always an attraction for visitors.”
Survivors include his daughters, Martha Francheteau of Brest, France, Julie Wickliffe of Three Rivers and Susan Gularte of Maui, Hawaii; stepchildren, Alex Long of Encinitas, Susan Piek of San Marcos, Patti Casne of Helena, Mont., Terry Fox of Tyler, Texas; sister, Martha Kalivas of Three Rivers; brother, Charles Larrick of Rancho Bernardo; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
No services were scheduled. Cremation was planned. Donations are suggested to the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, P.O. Box 310, Borrego Springs, CA 92004.
—by Jack Williams, San Diego Union-Tribune, published February 26, 2006
