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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, July 2, 2002

Teen victim adventurous, not careless, mother says

Previous stories
 •  Water pulls young tourist into Halona Blowhole
 •  Blowhole has history of danger

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

The grief-stricken family of the young man who was killed when he fell into the Halona Blowhole on Sunday prepared yesterday to bring his body home to California, as high-school classmates of the victim mourned him at an impromptu service there.

Nancy Dick, a Sylmar, Calif., hairdresser, grieved with her two sons Jacob, 16, and Matthew, 17, as the body of her eldest son, Daniel, 18, was recovered yesterday near Halona Blowhole. Daniel fell into the blowhole Sunday.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Nancy Dick, a hairdresser from Sylmar, Calif., positively identified her 18-year-old son, Daniel, after Fire Department divers recovered his body yesterday morning from 15 feet of water a short distance out to sea from the famous spout near Sandy Beach.

Speaking to The Advertiser through the Rev. Arnold Steinbeck, a Hawai'i pastor assisting the family, she praised the men and women who tried to save her son and knowing there had been other other deaths at the Blowhole, she expressed hope that future tragedies would be averted.

Daniel fell into the hole head first Sunday afternoon after he leaned over the opening in the rocks and was thrown 3 to 5 feet into the air by a rising spout of water that flipped him upside down, witnesses said.

His mother, flanked by her two other sons, Jacob, 16, and Matthew, 17, arrived at mid-morning yesterday to view the body when it was brought ashore in a Fire Department rescue boat, covered in a blue tarpaulin, at Maunalua Bay.

The boys wept at the sight of their elder brother, a charismatic, blond 180-pound youth who stood 6-foot-3.

Daniel was elected president of the student body at First Lutheran High School before graduating this year. He worked part-time at a grocery store, and planned to attend nearby California State University, Northridge in the fall.

He was, his mother told officials, adventurous but not careless.

Daniel Dick, 18, was president of the student body at First Lutheran High School.
His pastor in California, the Rev. Eric Malmstrom, described Daniel as "very athletic, a person who liked motocross and things like that. He was a great guy, very fun-loving, very gregarious, but he was also filling some pretty big shoes in his household."

His parents were divorced, and Daniel, working two after-school jobs as well as carrying a full academic load, found it necessary to give up his student-body office midway through the school year, Malmstrom said.

"One of his jobs was as a bag boy for the Ralph's supermarket, and I always remember going in there and seeing him working hard, and he always had a smile on his face."

At the store, Stephanie Burkhart, a co-worker, said staff had just learned of Daniel's death.

"He was a really good friend, he was one of the best," Burkhart said, "and a lot of people here are very upset at the news."

When a group of students gathered spontaneously on the high-school campus yesterday, Malmstrom held a brief memorial service for their lost classmate.

"They'd been coming to the school all day long," Malmstrom said.

The pastor told the youths "we will never know why somebody so young was taken, but we do know that those who are in the faith are assured of everlasting life."

Friends said a similar strong faith nourished the grieving mother who had given all three of her sons Biblical names.

Hawai'i Kai firefighter Jason Denis walked cautiously over rocks around Halona Blowhole while searching for Daniel Dick yesterday.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Malmstrom, a former U. S. Navy submariner who was stationed in Hawai'i in the early 1990s when he decided to become a minister, said he was well aware of the Blowhole's reputation.

"I knew the Blowhole, and I knew how dangerous it could be, and I knew how something like that could happen to a teenager who wasn't fully aware of the dangers," Malmstrom said. "It would be easy to underestimate the force that comes through there."

Daniel may not have seen an isolated warning sign at the highway lookout above the Blowhole Sunday, because he and friends apparently approached the site over the rocks from Sandy Beach, Fire Department Capt. Richard Soo said.

A witness said at least one person nearby tried to warn him when he walked up to the hole with a girl he had recently met and leaned over it with his arms extended.

Their church family gathered around the mother and brothers yesterday after Malmstrom called Pastor Mitch Gowen of Our Savior Lutheran Church in 'Aiea, an old friend, and Gowen dispatched Steinbeck, acting pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, to comfort the family.

Steinbeck said Nancy Dick was especially grateful to police Detective Phil Camero of the missing persons detail for being "not just a policeman, but a caring person, a gentleman and a Christian" who had comforted her family during the tragedy.

Earlier, volunteer Rosemary Hill of the Visitors' Aloha Society of Hawai'i joined Camero in assisting the family.

Daniel's mother and brothers, who were at the lookout when the search was suspended at 8 p.m. Sunday, returned at 5:30 a.m. after a sleepless night, went back to their hotel three hours later but then turned around again and went back to the search site. The body was recovered at 10:16 a.m.

An autopsy is expected to be completed this morning, and the mother and brothers may be able to return to California tonight or tomorrow, with the body to follow on another flight by week's end.

Daniel's father, also from California, was en route to Hawai'i yesterday.

Hill said people interested in assisting the family with their unexpected expenses may do so through the society by mailing checks made out to Nancy Dick in care of VASH at 2168 Kalia Road, Honolulu, HI 96815.

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.