Loved Ones Seek Comfort in Memories : Profiles: Friends, relatives of three killed try to cope with grief. Plans begin for services.

Les Arehart didn’t have an easy life: He was a high school football star who ended up in a wheelchair after a car accident more than two decades ago.

But he refused to curb his passion for physical activity. He para-sailed, water-skied and raced in wheelchair marathons. And he flew airplanes, taking to the skies as an instructor on weekends and commuting with a friend from Big Bear to his job in Anaheim.

On Monday, during one of those daily jaunts to work, Arehart, 47, and his friend, Michael Benson, 40, were killed in a plane crash as they attempted to land in heavy fog at Fullerton Airport. The plane clipped a utility pole and slammed into a townhouse complex, killing 43-year-old Sharan Ernst in her bedroom.

Arehart and Benson, who worked in Gardena, were flying from Big Bear, where they lived. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

For friends of Arehart, the crash brought a tragic end to a man who never let his handicap get in his way.

“His accident didn’t beat him,” said 69-year-old Phil Cantwell, who was Arehart’s coach when he was a star linebacker in the late 1960s at Bishop Amat High School in La Puente.

“It takes quite a guy to reach above that kind of tragedy and to go from a big strapping linebacker to a wheelchair,” Cantwell said. “But he did it. He was very positive.”

Arehart was among the dozen or so named to the school’s football Hall of Fame, which includes former Los Angeles Ram player Pat Haden, Cantwell said.

In 1988, Arehart was named the high school’s Alumnus of the Year, specifically for how he persevered after the auto accident in the early 1970s, said Estanislau, president of the school’s alumni association.

Arehart “was just a winner in every sense of the word,” said lifelong friend Bob Estanislau. “He believed in never giving up. His philosophy was, ‘Stay in the game and play to the end.’ ”

“He never quit on life,” Estanislau said.

At the time of his death, Arehart was working as a management analyst in the budget division of Anaheim’s Finance Department.

A memorial scholarship for pilot training in Arehart’s name is being established by friends, said Jan Ehrenberg, general manager of Aero Haven in Big Bear, where Arehart had been a weekend charter pilot and flight instructor.

Benson’s colleagues at Major Brass Corp., a foundry in Gardena, were devastated. He would typically fly his plane from Big Bear, drop Arehart off at Fullerton then continue on to Hawthorne Airport.

“Everyone is just absolutely stunned,” said David Jones, a company spokesman. “It’s been very hard to get any work done these last two days. I don’t know if anyone is ever going to be able to get over this.”

Jones, a longtime friend of Benson’s, fondly remembered the man who had worked at the company for 27 years, rising up through the ranks to a vice presidency.

“He was just one heck of a guy,” Jones said. “Mike was very outward and very easy to get along with.”

Benson and his wife, Sandy, have three sons, ages 4, 12 and 14.

“He was an excellent father,” Jones said. “He was very active with the children and their sports activities and really gave them a lot of support. He’d bring them into the office on weekends.”

There will be two services held for Benson on Saturday. The first will take place at 10:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Big Bear, 41960 Big Bear Blvd. That will be followed by a graveside service at 3 p.m. at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 S. Workman Mill Road, Whittier.

Benson’s family has requested that instead of giving flowers, mourners donate to the Michael Benson Memorial Fund for Children, c/o First Baptist Church of Big Bear, P.O. Box 1635, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315.

The family of 43-year-old Sharan Ernst spent Tuesday going through the family’s charred belongings. They had not yet begun planning the woman’s funeral because her body had yet to be positively identified by the Orange County coroner’s office, said Diana Castro, a spokeswoman for the family.

“This has been such a tragic thing but they are holding together as well as they can,” Castro said. “The thing that is helping them the most is the outpouring of support and love from the community. That has made a big difference.”

Ernst, a former registered nurse, was the mother of four children and a grandmother of two. She was described by family and friends as a “giving person” devoted to her family.

“She was a great mom and great grandma,” said 22-year-old Tawnya Spraggins, a close family friend. “You were always welcome in her home. She was like a second mom.”