Over 300 Flock to Beach Memorial for Mark Bixby

As a full moon rose over Alamitos Bay, more than 300 family and friends gathered on the beach Friday night in a simple, lovely candlelight remembrance of Long Beach native son Mark Bixby. He and four others perished aboard a private plane that crashed at Long Beach Airport shortly after take-off Wednesday. A sixth passenger,  Bixby's boss Mike Jensen, survived but suffered major injuries.

Hastily organized the night of the crash by Bixby's childhood friends, the gathering drew hundreds onto the sand, down the bayside sidewalk and offshore in boats and kayaks. Barefoot City Auditor Laura Doud, who met Bixby in 7th grade at Hill Middle School, could only guess at 300 to 400 mourners.

Doud welcomed people with a few brief words to say there'd be no program or speakers, just the peaceful launching of five yellow Daisy wreaths into Alamitos Bay, one for each fatal plane crash victim. A sixth wreath, also carrying a tea light candle, remained onshore in honor of survivor Jensen.

She called the victims "wonderful men." The point of the fellowship, she said:

"To take a moment of silence to reflect and to remember and to offer our collective faith and prayers on behalf of the families, and those who lost their lives, and also for Mike Jensen, for his recovery, and also for the families who are suffering so greatly at this time."

Afterward guests lingered past dark and chatted about their favorite Mark stories. Said Doud: "He would have done something like this for any one of us."

Gathering outside the beach house of Bixby's mother, Betsy Steen, near the former home of his late grandmother, was the perfect spot, friends said. Bixby's children, a high school-aged son and two younger daughters, also attended but their mother, Theresa, chose to grieve in private.

The L.A. County Coroner identified the fatal victims as Jeffrey Albert Berger, 49, of Manhattan Beach; Mark Llewllyn Bixby, 44, of Long Beach; Kenneth Earl Cruz, 43, of Culver City; Thomas Fay Dean, 50, of Laguna Beach, and Bruce Michael Krall, 51, of Ladera Ranch. Dean owned the plane, piloted by Cruz and carrying Jensen, Bixby, Dean's partner Berger and financier Krall. The men were bound for a ski trip in Park City, Utah.

The sole survivor of the crash  was Jensen, a Naples resident who owns Pacific Retail Partners, where Bixby was a broker. Bud Lorbeer, a major 2nd Street property owner, said Friday that he and Jensen co-own the Rite Aid building in the Shore and other property. Jensen was moved to the UCI Burn Center in Orange on Thursday night and his family released a statement Friday that he was improving from serious injuries. Updates to his condition can be found here.

Friday night, all six men were remembered with a long silence on the crowded beach.  It did not appear that families of the other crash victims attended and Councilman Gary DeLong said Dean's and Berger's services would be private. A more traditional memorial will be held for Bixby on Friday. Besides DeLong, Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal and a third council member attended the sand ceremony, as did Mayor Bob Foster's wife, Nancy, State Senator Alan Lowenthal and State Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal.

The casual venue suited many people, who clutched white candles (plunged through the Dixie cups to catch drips). There were grizzled surfers, second-generation friends of Bixby's parents from the Long Beach Yacht Club, fellow Rotary Club members, cyclists sporting gloves and helmets, and a few paddle boarders. (Bixby had paddled between Catalina and the mainland, one friend said).

Besides his children and other family, there were old friends from Wilson, and newer friends from high-performance cycling. They knew Bixby, 44, from a wide swath of his interests -- bicycler, surfer, photographer, teacher, real estate broker.

"Everyone here tonight describes themselves as his best friend and has a story," said Doud, who met Bixby in 7th grade, the year his father died, also at 44. He, too, was memorialized on the same thread of bayfront peninsula, longtime friends of "Bix" said.

Friend and cyclist Walter Howard (fixed from Crawford) said that he met Bixby through mutual friends who dragged him on a bicycle ride some years back. On Sunday, Bixby returned from a 500-mile-ride from San Jose. By Tuesday night he'd posted his photographic coverage of the ride. When he took to something, Howard said, it was full-tilt. (Friends on Howard's blahblahfreddy.com blog noted they were not surprised that Mark was in the co-pilot seat of the plane Wednesday).

Bixby and Crawford teamed in advocating through bikablecommunities.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD6ElLY4rfE&playnext=1&list=PL625535B6B70BE38E

  In November, Bixby delivered his case to the California Coastal Commission that two cycling lanes and room for pedestrians should be built 15 feet wide onto the new  $1 billion new Gerald Desmond Bridge. (See  and )

Long Beach Harbor Commissioner Mario Cordero attended the Friday night vigil and indicated support of the lanes to Crawford, he said.

"That will be Mark's legacy," Crawford said.

Might they try to get the future bridge named after Bixby?

"I think," he said, "we'll get that done."