The Valley Intruder : MAX AND LELA KNEIDING : Glendale, July 20

When Max Kneiding, who rarely missed a Saturday service, failed to show up for his deacon duties at the Glendale Seventh-day Adventist Church on July 20, the Rev. Arthur Torres was concerned.

Shortly before he began to preach, Torres was handed a note by an usher: Max and his wife, Lela, had been shot to death.

“I could hardly go on,” Torres said. The tragedy hit the congregation hard, he said. “They were angry, they were upset, they had question after question--why would God let this happen to such good people?”

Kneiding, 68, who owned a service station, and Mrs. Kneiding, 66, who worked for the security force at Robinson’s department store, had been high school friends in Iowa. They had been married 47 years.

A quiet, hard working man, Kneiding had a streak of the madcap. Friends fondly remember his “Maxiburgers” at back yard barbecues, the time he wanted to buy a ghost town and his forays in the stock market.

“Max liked to joke about his ‘abilities’ in the market,” a friend said. “But he never did lose money. He just got a kick out of buying something at $2, watching it go up to $16, then watch it come back down again.”

Mrs. Kneiding was a good match for her husband, friends said. She would call a friend for lunch--and drive 100 miles to a new spot. An avid Laker and Dodgers fan, if she had chores or a party when a game was on, she would lug along a portable TV and radio. In her spare time, she played the organ.

The Kneidings’ three children and 13 grandchildren were the center of their lives. They left their door unlocked so family members could come and go.

Their assailant walked through the unlocked door.

Two weeks later, Torres took to the pulpit to address the Kneidings’ family and friends.

“To try and give a rational explanation for an irrational act is to legitimize it,” Torres said. “But we need not mourn as those who have no hope. . . .”