Friends and Relatives Celebrate Memory of Teen Killed by Burglar

VENTURA —  They came Saturday not to mourn James “Jake” Bush but to celebrate his life. They came to remember his quick wit and even quicker smile.

They came to share stories about a young man on the verge of adulthood, a youngster as good at making friends as he was at physics. An only child taken from his parents last week, killed after discovering a burglar in the family’s Montalvo home.

“James embraced life to the fullest,” Buena High track coach Ray Seay said at a memorial service attended by friends and family members. Hundreds turned out, packing the chapel at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home and spilling into a nearby courtyard and breezeway.

“He had passion and enthusiasm for everything he undertook,” Seay said. “I choose to deal with James’ death by holding onto memories of who he was. The character he had and the kind of person he was will not be forgotten.”

For a few hours, people joined together to remember a good kid.

Police do not yet know who killed the popular Buena High student, a month away from his 17th birthday and a summer away from his senior year.

They know only that a burglar hiding in the house Tuesday stabbed him three times before bolting out the front door and vanishing into the family’s working-class neighborhood.

But to know how Jake died is to know nothing about how he lived, friends said.

Jake was a whiz at physics and calculus, finishing as the top student in both subjects even as a junior. He was a solid athlete, remembered for his work ethic and his refusal to accept second best.

He loved computer games and Dr Pepper. He had a thirst for knowledge, and his favorite response was “cool.” His parents liked to call him a budding Renaissance man.

“He was a teacher’s dream student, and I would think for any parent a dream child,” said Paul Schuster, Jake’s physics teacher last school year and one of three speakers at Saturday’s memorial. “It saddens me to think that other educators will never have the opportunity to know this incredible young man.”

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At the front of the chapel, sunflowers and tulips embraced a simple casket carved out of Carolina poplar. Jake’s varsity letter was framed and set off to one side, a giant “B” with the winged runner’s foot.

On each side, there were two glass displays with three medals each, including one for first place in the triple jump at last spring’s league meet. There was also a plaque emblazoned with a giant bulldog naming Jake the most improved athlete of the 1996 track season.

Jake’s mother and stepfather--Gail and Bob Shirley--sat off to one side at the service, out of view. But they were not alone. Both are teachers at Balboa Middle School in east Ventura, and while Jake may have been their only child, they had nurtured an entire brood of kids over the years.

“Jake Bush was to some of us a son, to some a relative, to some a student, to some an athlete, to some a friend, to some a counselor, but to all of us a genuine example,” said 17-year-old Jaron Wilde, one of Jake’s closest friends.

“In life, he accomplished more perhaps than many others who have lived much longer,” he said. “He loved and was loved, he had many true, good friends and set an example for the rest of us to emulate.”

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Jaron read a long list of tributes to Jake from nearly two dozen of his friends.

And as the service wound down, a quartet performed a song written especially for him: “The candle burned so bright within our sight, now it’s lost to our eyes,” they sang. “You will remain within our lives though you’re lost to our eyes.”

The memorial service ended with everyone filing past Jake’s closed casket, some depositing cards and bouquets of daisies and yellow roses. In the funeral home’s parking lot, friends held each other and sobbed as Jake’s family remained inside.

“I don’t understand it completely. I’m not sure I really want to,” said 17-year-old B.J. Hipskind, a fellow track team member who was circulating a picture of Jake for all his friends to sign. He planned to present the remembrance to Jake’s parents.

“I’ll remember him as a person who took his calculus book home during the summer,” said B.J., wearing a Buena letterman’s jacket. “He was a genius, always trying to make himself better.”

Danny O’Halloran, co-author of Jake’s song, said that writing and singing had helped him cope with losing a friend.

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“I wonder sometimes if this has really hit me yet,” he said. “The hardest thing for me is seeing everyone else hurting so badly.”

Even for those who never knew Jake, the loss was profound. This was not just a loss for the family, but a loss for the larger community.

“Any time you lose such a fine young man, it’s a loss to the entire city,” said Ventura Mayor Jack Tingstrom, who attended Saturday’s memorial service. “That’s one of the future leaders of the community. I believe the entire city is mourning that loss.”

There were no graveside services for Jake, whose body will be cremated. But friends and family members did gather at an east Ventura home to carry on the celebration of Jake’s life, to trade stories and keep his memory alive.

And when Bob and Gail Shirley arrived, all of Jake’s friends came out to greet them, exchanging giant hugs and quiet words.

“I was thinking the other day, if there was anyone who didn’t deserve to die, it was Jake,” said 18-year-old James Allen, who graduated this month from Buena High. “He was the best person.”

Correspondent Regina Hong contributed to this report.