Crash Victim Didn’t Let Adversity Get Him Down

Rodney David Adams wasn’t one to sulk, even when life dealt him a string of blows that might have dimmed the brightest spirit.

In the last decade, he had survived a stroke, lost a leg to diabetes and saw his house destroyed in the 1994 earthquake. Yet he persevered, friends say.

“He’s been through a lot of life’s struggles,” said Leanne Schaefer, a close friend who lives on Ada Street, across from Adams’ home. “But he was always a happy man.”

Adams, 45, was driving on Soledad Canyon Road on Thursday night--probably heading home from the gym, friends and family say--when a car full of teenagers hurtled over the center divider and slammed head-on into his Mustang. He died at the scene.

Three passengers in the other car, an Acura that authorities said was traveling more than 90 mph, were also killed. The driver, Marcus Christian Lellan, 18, was arrested Friday on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

As family members and hundreds of students at Canyon High School mourn the deaths of their classmates--Dominic Whit Ianozzi, 16, and brothers Timothy Lee Renolds, 17, and Daniel Richard Renolds, 15--those who loved Rodney Adams are also grieving, remembering a loving man whose imposing physique belied his gentle heart.

“He had an intimidating look,” Schaefer said, recalling a Christmas shopping trip at a crowded mall with Adams. “When we first walked into Sears, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. I’ve never had such good customer service, either. I said, ‘That’s it. You’re coming with me every year.’ ”

Though he never married or had children, Adams was surrounded by family and friends. After graduating from Locke High School in Watts, he joined the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier in the San Fernando Valley, said April Adams, his niece.

Before he was out of his 30s, the heavyset Granada Hills mail carrier with the booming laugh suffered a stroke. A year later, the Northridge earthquake destroyed his home, stripping him of everything he owned.

But Adams--or Rocky, as everyone called him--dusted himself off and moved to Santa Clarita to start over. A few years later, he lost a leg to diabetes. Undaunted, he threw himself into a strict workout regimen, layering his 6-foot-3 frame with taut muscles.

Even during the low times, his niece said, “he was just always in good spirits. He was always like, ‘There’s tomorrow, there’s another day.’

“He was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to know,” she said. The kind of guy who’d get so many homemade pies and gifts from people along the mail route he walked for 20 years that he’d have to bring the overflow to his family’s house.

Adams loved cars and music, especially Motown, rock and the blues. He steered clear of alcohol and cigarettes and regularly attended church. He liked to read and, since retiring as a letter carrier after losing his leg, had begun to act in commercials and rock videos, April Adams said.

For Christmas, he cheerfully passed out publicity photos of himself--autographed, of course. “He said they’d be valuable some day,” she said.

Adams is survived by his twin brother, Robert of Long Beach; four sisters, Katherine Hampton and Joan Nickpee of Carson, Carol Adams of Los Angeles, and Sandra Cook of Cleveland; and 10 nieces and nephews.

“He was full of life,” Schaefer said. “He was kind of a giant teddy bear walking around.”