Doug Stone

Stone, 54, a Dover, N.H., print shop owner, may have made his home on the East Coast, but he lived much of his life in Los Angeles. Every few weeks, he flew here to visit his son, Zach, his ex-wife, Beth, and a business associate.

A native New Englander with a dry sense of humor, Stone graduated from Cal State Long Beach but returned east in the late 1980s after he divorced.

“He’s been my best friend for 25 years,” said Beth Stone. “We just couldn’t be married.”

On his frequent trips to Los Angeles, he watched Zach, a Fountain Valley High School graduate, compete in track and cross-country.

On this trip, he was coming back to see his son off to UCLA.

“He was a really honest, straightforward person,” said Zach, who is starting his freshman year. “I used to tell people that he wasn’t a fake person. He told you what he thought.”