Jet Crash Victims Eulogized Amid Tears, Smiles : Memorial service: Three officials of the In-N-Out burger chain are remembered as fun-loving men. Anecdotes elicit laughter from 2,000 friends, relatives.

In an upbeat service punctuated by pop music and occasional bursts of laughter, about 2,000 people gathered Thursday to eulogize three of the men killed in last week’s plane crash as friends who loved their families, loved God and loved to play practical jokes.

The pastor called them “The Three Musketeers.”

Friends, relatives and co-workers shared remembrances and poignant anecdotes. Sobs mixed with giggles and loud applause. And throughout the two-hour tribute, the smiling faces of Richard A. Snyder, Philip R. West and Jack W. Sims beamed from a display of color photographs in which the three close friends and business associates were clearly having a good time.

“These men were fun, and we hope this service has some fun in it,” said the Rev. Chuck Smith Jr. of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, who knew all three men and served as a sort of master of ceremonies during the service in Santa Ana. “To miss them is certainly understandable. But to remember them without a smile would be a crime.”

Snyder, 41, president of the Baldwin Park-based In-N-Out Burger chain; West, 37, Snyder’s boyhood best friend and chief business assistant; and Sims, 47, a close friend of the two executives and consultant to the company, were killed Dec. 15 when the chartered jet in which they were passengers apparently went out of control in the dangerous turbulence generated by the wake of a Boeing 757 landing at John Wayne Airport. The smaller plane crashed in a fireball near Santa Ana Auto Mall. Also killed in the crash were two pilots, Stephen R. Barkin, 46, and John O. McDaniel, 49.

The two aviators and their three passengers were each remembered in private, somber memorial services over the past week, and Thursday’s public ceremony for Snyder, Sims and West was decidedly different.

A dozen people offered improvised eulogies, with the victims’ favorite songs--Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams,” “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,” by Rod Stewart, and “Proud To Be an American,” Lee Greenwood’s Gulf War hit--blaring through the church.

The three men were heard, via an audiotape, singing The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” in a karaoke bar. And in a photo on the cover of the memorial service’s program, the three wore sunglasses and white tuxedos at Snyder’s wedding 18 months ago.

Esther Snyder, the matriarch of the family that owns the 93-restaurant hamburger chain, received two standing ovations when she rose to speak toward the end of the service. Her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, Snyder recounted her son’s final day, when she flew with the three men to watch the opening of a new restaurant in Fresno, but disembarked at Brackett Field in La Verne less than 30 minutes before the fatal crash.

“Rich said, ‘Mom, I’m so glad you got to go with us today.’ I kissed and hugged him. When I got off the plane, Phil was there with my jacket,” Esther Snyder said. “I sat back, and waved, and thought, ‘Lord, I’m glad I got to know these men.’ ”

Bruce Herschensohn, the conservative commentator Snyder backed in a failed bid for the U.S. Senate last year, called his friend “the epitome of goodness and decency” and said Snyder’s legacy as “the hamburger king” who gave generously to poor children would linger on into the next generation.

“If we judge the length of life by clocks and by calendars, then Rich was much too young for all of this,” Herschensohn said. “But if we judge the length of life by quality and charity, then Rich was an old man.”

In the spirit of the victims, the long service was part religious and part stand-up comedy, with quotations from Scripture interspersed with off-color jokes. Sims, after all, had run Matthew’s Party, a church for people who don’t like church. And all three “musketeers” met weekly for Bible study accented with outrageous antics.

Bill Freeman recalled late-night phone calls in which Sims impersonated an Internal Revenue Service agent.

Claire Bianchi recalled high school, when friends hung out at West’s pool every Friday night for meetings of the Cabana Club.

Don Miller, who trained Rich Snyder behind the counter at In-N-Out, joked about making Snyder cry as he learned to slice onions.

Larry Feemster, an In-N-Out executive, spoke of annual company fishing trips to Montana in which the men resembled “an overage Boy Scout troop with an Animal House mentality.”

Snyder’s brother, Guy, told of the time little “Richie” carved his name on someone else’s avocado field while playing on a tractor.

And West’s cousin, Robbie Briggs, reminisced about climbing trees, placing pennies on train tracks, going to In-N-Out for burgers and kissing girls in the fields long ago.

“Our childhood was a little bit of heaven on earth,” Briggs said. “Those days are gone. In a way, that California is gone. That innocence is gone, and now, (they’re) gone.”

Over and over, those delivering eulogies encouraged mourners to treasure their happy memories with Snyder, West and Sims, and to look forward to reuniting with them after death. Speaking with the two other widows by her side, Christina Snyder told the audience to keep the faith.

“Right now, as our hearts are grieving, and we feel empty inside, the only hope is to know that Jesus is with us,” she said. “If you don’t know Jesus, it’s time to open up your life and your heart and to commit your life to him. Today, we challenge you to acknowledge the Lord and to let Him direct your path.”

After the service, mourners mingled at three separate receptions. The church’s lobby was crowded with wreaths of flowers, including one in which red and yellow carnations formed the In-N-Out logo, and another of balloons in the company colors.

Many in the crowd worked for the restaurant chain, which plans to move its headquarters to Irvine early next year.

Also present were several dozen police officers and Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez.

In his eulogy, Herschensohn said the Snyder family--long supporters of conservative Republicans--had also received condolence cards from Gov. Pete Wilson and former presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan.