WHITTIER — Friends and family Friday mourned and remembered a Whittier great grandfather killed when his fishing boat capsized off the coast of Seal Beach.
Randale Walker, 75, was pronounced dead at Los Alamitos Medical Center shortly after Thursday’s 12:45 p.m. accident just yards off the coast near the 100 block of Surf Side Avenue, Orange County coroner’s officials said.
An 8-year-old-boy and his 40-year-old father, friends of Walker, were also on the boat but were not seriously injured, Orange County sheriff’s officials said.
“Witnessed described what they thought was the boat capsizing in an oncoming wave,” sheriff’s spokesman Dan Salcedo said.
Family members said Walker, known as “Randy,” was a fun-loving, giving man who had a special affinity for children.
“He was outgoing, charismatic. He loved people,” said his wife, Joanne Walker. “He was a very, very religious man.”
They couple would have been married 20 years in December.
Walker was an avid fisherman who took his boat out on the ocean with friends every chance he got.
On Thursday, he had taken out a friend and his son for an excursion when disaster struck, said his step-daughter, Debbie Pendleton.
“He was a really great guy. He was always wanting to help people and doing things for other people,” she said.
Walker is survived by his wife, three children, four step-children, grand children, step-grandchildren and great grand children, family members said.
“It’s a big loss. He was a wonderful person. My kids just adored him,” Pendleton said.
“He loved the kids,” she added. “He came to everything they did. He was at all their track meets, all their football games.”
Born in Oklahoma, Walker was raised in the agriculture area north of Bakersfield, Joanne Walker said.
He worked as a contract harvester before moving to Arizona and getting involved in horse-racing, she said.
Ultimately, Walker made his career installing sprinkler systems. He moved to Southern California and joined the Sprinkler Fitters Local 709 in Whittier.
He lived in Whittier for the past 20 years.
When the 18-foot-long boat flipped over, “The 40-year-old man was thrown clear,” Salcedo said, but Walker and the boy became trapped beneath the vessel.
Lifeguards, Seal Beach police and Hunting Beach fire responded to help.
“They only managed to lift the boat up enough to get the victim and 8-year-old out,” Salcedo said. They were unable to flip the boat back over.
Salcedo said he did not know whether the boaters were wearing life vests.
Coroner’s officials planned to carry out an autopsy to determine how Walker died.