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In memory of
Cruz Lopez Rodriguez
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Cruz's obituary
Cruz Lopez Rodriguez, 88, passed away in Grapeview, WA on June 9, 2020. He is survived by his loving and supportive wife, Betty Rodriguez, who He married on September 15, 2012, and his six sons, Ernie (daughter-in-law, Lupe), Jay, Louie, Vic, Richard (daughter-in-law, Linda), and Joseph Rodriguez, his two daughters, Virginia (son-in-law, Steve) Camp and Rebecca Ard, as well as his two step-sons, Chuck (daughter-in-law, Michelle) Guynn; and Allen (daughter-in-law, Christy) Cooper.
Cruz leaves behind 17 grandchildren (Anna, Ernie, Jr., Jaron, Justin, Jordan, Allison, Brianne, Marissa, Elise, Vic Jr., Adam, Christy, Josh, Alexis, Maddison, Austin and Skyler); and eight great-grandchildren (Daniel, Christopher, Jonathan, Melodie, Jonnie, Violet, Josh and Tarah).
Cruz lived a full life. He held a Banning High School track record for the one mile for a couple of years, ran Cross Country and earned a School Letter. He loved music. He was asked to sing the Lord’s Prayer at his High School graduation and taught himself how to play the guitar. He served his country as an Air Force Bomber Navigator in the Korean War, where he met a life-time friend, Robert Von Hatten, who introduced him to Ruben Pompa, who later were members of a trio group, where Cruz was the lead singer. The group performed both English and Spanish music for weddings, parties and special occasions throughout Southern California. Cruz was also selected to sing on national TV in the late ‘60’s.
Cruz was hired by McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) in the early ‘60’s working on the DC-8 jet-liner as a lavatory installer. After completing his college degree at night, he was selected to work at Cape Canaveral in Florida, where he worked in the space capsules of the Mercury Space (Atlas) Program and the early Apollo Program. It was at this time that Cruz met and befriended astronauts John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin and Guss Grissom. Upon completing his responsibilities at the Cape, he returned to Huntington Beach and was later transferred to Flight Test in Yuma, Arizona, where he and his crew intentionally tried to crash commercial jets, so that they could write procedures that would later be used to assist commercial pilots in the event their plane was under distress. Later, Cruz moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1990, where he taught Brazilian Pilots how to fly the MD 11, one of the first computerized cockpits, before retiring from Boeing. Cruz was always learning and by the end of his career could speak five different languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Japanese).
It is with great joy to share, that after much family prayer, our father received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior! In his final days, he was patiently and lovingly cared for by his wife, Betty and her two sons, Chuck and Allen – to which we owe an enormous amount of appreciation and gratitude. Thank you for showing our father so much love and kindness in our absence!
Our dad will be returned to Southern California - per his wishes, but his soul will be in Heaven.
Dad, we know how much you loved to sing. Now you can make a joyful noise before our Creator.
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Created with love by
virginia camp (Cruz's daughter).
