Timothy ‘Tim’ Ward

Tim Ward, 38, was an executive at Rubio’s, the Carlsbad-based restaurant chain that made fish tacos a popular fast food throughout Southern California. Ward started with the company 14 years ago, when it consisted of three modest restaurants selling a new thing called fish tacos. He stayed with the company as it grew into a publicly traded chain.

Born in Modesto, he moved to San Diego when he was in high school and graduated from San Diego State. He still lived in San Diego, according to a spokeswoman for his mother, Suzie Ward Baker. An enthusiastic theater-goer, he was a season ticket holder at the Old Globe Theater in the city’s Balboa Park. His mother lives in La Mesa and his father, Ray, lives in Visalia.

According to the spokeswoman, Ward had accompanied his girlfriend, Linda Brewton, who works for Cisco Systems in Northern California, to Boston, where she was attending a business meeting. His girlfriend took him to the airport Tuesday and watched him board his flight to Los Angeles. From there, he had planned to fly home to San Diego.