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Shooting victim was passionate about job and politics, widow and friend say

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As he did every day, Nicholas Thalasinos dropped off his wife at work. But on Wednesday, he also carried in the classroom snacks.

“So I actually got an extra hug and a kiss before he left,” recalled Jennifer Thalasinos on Thursday, outside her Colton home. “So I’m just holding on to that.”

Thalasinos, 41, described her husband as a good, chivalrous man with a vast amount of friends made at church and on Facebook.

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The second-grade teacher for the Colton Joint Unified School District said she had received a news alert on her phone about the San Bernardino shooting that would end up claiming the lives of 14 people.

Trying to keep her efforts quiet while in front of her students, she attempted in vain to reach her husband. Then she learned that the shooting had taken place at the Inland Regional Center, the same building that housed her husband’s annual employee party where awards are handed out.

“As soon as I heard what had happened, I pretty much knew that he was gone. I just had a feeling,” she said.

Thalasinos said her husband was a health inspector who worked with shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook at the San Bernardino County Health Department’s environmental services division.

“They got along,” she said. “As far as I know, [Syed] got along with everybody. That’s what’s so shocking.”

The couple met online and had been together for 14 years. Both Messianic Jews, Thalasinos said her husband wore a tie clip with the Star of David.

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“My husband was just a very devout believer,” she said. “He became born again a couple of years ago and because of that I had a very strong faith, so I know that he’s in a much better place.”

She added that her husband evangelized many. “He wanted to serve the lord and bring more people to the lord.”

She said that her husband was aware Farook was Muslim, but had never mentioned that his co-worker had any extreme views. “If he would have ... my husband would have had something to say.”

Thalasinos said she had heard that before the shooting, there may have been an argument at the party. She described her husband as very outspoken about Islamic terrorism, with strong conservative politics.

“I’m sure that he went down fighting and protecting people,” she said.

Just four days earlier, Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, had phoned a friend to tell him he was feeling OK after having a growth removed from his head.

“He had just healed from one thing and then this happened,” said Ed Beck, whose wife once worked with Thalasinos for the Cape May County Department of Health in New Jersey.

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Thalasinos had worked as a health inspector and left for California about a decade ago after meeting his future wife, Beck said.

Public payroll records confirm that Thalasinos worked as an environmental health specialist.

“He had an incredibly good work ethic,” Beck said. “The job of a sanitary inspector is certainly not the most glamorous of professions. He was passionate about it. He wanted to make sure people were safe.”

Beck, 55, remembered Thalasinos as someone always willing to lend a helping hand to others. He recalled that when he and his wife were in the process of building an addition to their home that Thalasinos would often drop by and pitch in.

“He certainly wasn’t the contractor type, but anything he could do in the construction process, he was willing to do,” Beck said.

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Beck said his friend had become concerned about Israel in recent years and was extremely forthright about his opinions.

Thalasinos has two adult sons, he said.

Many of Thalasinos’ friends shared their grief on social media.

“I am in utter disbelief!!! Why? Why does God take away good people?” posted Yael Zarif-Markovich.

Paul Haried wrote: “Nick was such a loving and kind man. … Blessed be his memory! Yah grant him a wonderful place in yer Kingdom.”

Diana Jakopovic posted that she was Thalasinos’ longtime online friend and that they had bonded over political issues. She noted that he seemed deeply devout and often cited Scripture.

“I liked his comments,” she wrote. “He was inspiring. He understood that there is a lot of evil happening in the world.”

One of Thalasinos’ public Facebook posts, written the day before the shooting, mentioned receiving a threatening message related to Israel.

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Until last year, Thalasinos contributed to the conservative blog Big Dog, where he wrote under the name “Noahide,” the website’s administrator said in a blog post.

Times staff writer Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.

For more California news, follow @veronicarochaLA and @corinaknoll

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