5 Families Mourn Swissair Victims

Jana L. DeMeire was a 40-year-old partner of a Los Angeles law firm who lived in the Hollywood Hills and was heading off for a two-week Greek vacation with her mother.

Ernest G. Thompson was a 70-year-old retired aerospace engineer from Chatsworth, a travel bug who was headed on the first leg of a trip that would take him to see relatives in Europe.

Tom and Julie Sperber were a couple in their 30s from San Juan Capistrano heading off on a long-delayed Mediterranean honeymoon.

And Monte Wilkins was a 19-year-old student from the San Bernardino County community of Yucaipa, flying to Europe to study at the Institut Adventiste du Saleve in Collonges, France.

They were all on Swissair Flight 111 to Geneva, and they were all being mourned on Friday.

“It’s a tragic day,” said John J. Welsh, the managing partner of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, where DeMeire worked. “It’s a terrible thing any time you have something like this happen, especially with someone so young with so much of her life to look forward to.”

Thompson’s widow, Mary, had stayed behind, managing an office building. “He wanted me to retire,” she said, “so I could go with him.”

Tom Sperber’s cousin, Frank Sperber, had misgivings about the Sperbers’ trip in light of recent terrorist bombings. “A bad time to travel, with what was going on in the world,” he said. “But it was their honeymoon.”

DeMeire’s mother, Jacqueline Schachter of Oregon, was supposed to be on Flight 111 when it left New York, too. But she missed her connecting flight and told her daughter she would meet her in Geneva.

Schachter, a professor of linguistics, was in Newark International Airport, preparing to catch her rendezvous flight Wednesday night when she got the word that Flight 111 had gone off the radar. Suspecting the worst, she put down her bags and began the agonizing process of calling family and friends.

The mother’s European vacation has ended in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where desperate relatives of crash victims are gathering to seek answers and await word on the recovery of their 229 lost loved ones.

Since the crash, the shock over DeMeire’s death has been reverberating--from the Hollywood Hills where she lived, to the downtown law office where she worked, to the Venice Family Clinic where she volunteered.

“She would do whatever was needed to do, regardless of whether there was any glory in it,” said Sandy Rathbun, a close friend who co-chairs docent tours at the annual Venice Art Walk, which raises money for the Venice Family Clinic. “She was an example of the saying that whenever something needs to be done, get the busiest person to do it.”

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Tom Sperber was 39 and worked for the Camarillo-based H.W. Baker Linen Inc. Julie Sperber, 33, worked for Bristol Meyer Squib in Irvine.

They had been married little more than a year and wanted a family, friends said, but Julie refused to have children until they had a honeymoon.

“They were going on a cruise where they could island-hop and relax and enjoy,” said Cheryl Smith, one of Julie Sperber’s friends.

“They were just beginning their life,” Smith said tearfully. “Everything stopped too early.”

The couple would have flown out of Los Angeles to Europe. But they opted to visit relatives in New Jersey first--a decision that placed them on the fateful flight out of New York.

The Sperbers had not yet finished remodeling the beige two-story home in San Jan Capistrano, where they moved two years ago. But that didn’t stop them from hosting numerous get-togethers and parties.

“They were a wonderful host and hostess,” said Janet Sperber, Frank’s wife. “They were just the kind of people who made you feel at home instantly.”

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For Ernest Thompson, this was to be the first trip back to Greece since his 10-month stay there and throughout Europe after retiring from Rocketdyne in 1987.

“He was going to go for a year, but after 10 months he grew lonely for his family,” his widow said.

Thompson had an energetic personality, friends said. He loved to folk dance, talk voluminously and write long letters describing his experiences to family and friends.

“He swears he would wear out a pair of shoes in three days,” said Guy Ervin III, a former co-worker and 25-year friend. Thompson regularly attended the annual festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge.

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Monte Wilkins was participating in the Adventist Colleges Abroad program after spending his freshman year studying accounting at Walla Walla College in Washington state, college spokeswoman Rosa Jimenez said.

“There is a strong sense of loss among the students that knew him. He was a very engaging, committed Christian that both the staff and students respected a lot,” said Barry Fowler, principal of a boarding school in Bozeman, Mont., that Wilkins had attended.

Wilkins’ death was announced at Walla Walla College after the victim’s father, ophthalmologist Dr. David Wilkins, talked to the campus president and chaplain, thanking them for their thoughts and prayers.

The family declined to comment. David Cruz, an office manager at the elder Wilkins’ office in Redlands, said the family did not want to comment, describing a scene being played out in scores of homes where the passengers of Flight 111 once lived.

“The mood here is very solemn,” he said.

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Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Martha L. Willman, Greg Hernandez and John Canalis.