James Cummins was an eccentric royalty of loyalty. At 77, he attended church three times a week, was in his 54th year working for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. He amassed nearly 5,ooo hours of sick leave driving his 1979 Mercury LTD to work day after day.
The sedan had nearly 500,000 miles when it collieded with a Toyota 4-runner driven by a 15-year-old traveling the wrong way in reverse early Thursday morning. Paramedics had to fling stacks of Cummins' newspapers from his crushed car to extricate his shortly after midnight. He died at a hospital at 4:45 a.m., stunning relatives, colleagues, church associates and an entire beach community.
From their stories emerged the image of a man dedicated to the finest things in life: his work, his church, his family and his automobile.
In Ocean Beach, the physicist was known as "The Hoarder" by some locals accustomed to his Southern charm and arrival of his car, which was covered with strips of metallic tape to thwart rain and rust.
A SPAWAR spokesman, STEVE DAVIS, called 50 years of any government service "pretty much extraordinary."
Th eoldest of his three children, 57-year-old Jacqueline Cummins, said her father's attachments are a product of a different time.
"he grew up in the (Great) Depression, and in the Depression days, he grew up where you use everything, so he just had that habit," she said. "He saves the newspapers because he knows where everythings is."
Another daughter, Jenee Lucia, 48, said the newspapers also became gifts.
He would same them and give articles to people," she said. "He knew everybody's interests, and would be there, johnny-on-the-spot, saying I've got this paper for you, here's an article on it."
With a medical condition called Dowager's hump twisting his back into a question mark, Cummins was very much like his Car. He had an aging body but a mind that fired on all cylinders. Lucia called him "one of those people who if you asked his a question about something, he knew the answer."
She laughed recalling how she took her driver's license test in her father's Mercury. She got emotional when she remembered going to a ceremony to commemorate her father's 50th anniversary at SPAWAR. She has changed careers three times, and her father would tell her to just pick one.
"He would stay as long they let him stay there," Lucia said. "I understand there were times when they shut the lights out and said, 'You need to go home."
Today would have been Cummins' 54th year with the Navy command. Most recently, he was working on a secure communications system for amphibious operations, said his supervisor, Al Lockwood.
"Work in his late years was pretty much his life," Lockwood said. "He just would rather stay at work and do that to keep his mind sharp and to keep time filled."
Lockwood said Cummins would sometimes tell him, "I have enough money to buy a Lincoln," then say his car always got him where he wanted to go.
Cummins, born in Tennessee to a father who was a farmer and a pastor and a mother who was a teacher, went to Canyon View Church of Christ in Clairemont twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday night.
"He was here every time the doors were opened," longtime church secretary Jane McCowen said. "He stood at the back door as church was letting out and would tell ladies, 'I love you, darling.' He was just a sweet sweet man."
McCowen parked next to Cummins old sedan Wednesday night.
"I saw him sitting across the room from me, and that was the last time I saw him," she said. "I saw him every Wednesday night."
Cummins daughters said he likely stopped at a restaurant for dinner after church that evening. He was a night owl and sometimes stayed late when he ate out.
He was headed westbound on Sea World Drive toward home when the 15-year-old driver missed the turnoff for Ingraham Street and put the 4-Runner in reverse. Jacqueline Cummins, who lives near her father on Saratoga Avenue, was asleep when authorities called her Thursday morning. By day's end, someone had left flowers at his cottage.
Lucia has followed news reports of the accident and wondered how the teenage driver and his parents are holding up.
"They just need to know that the bottom line in our hearts is forgiveness and what happened, happened. And I just feel that there shouldn't be two lives ruined," she said between sobs.
"I wish I could talk to them. I wish I could hold them and let them know that we're all OK. That what my dad would have wanted."
The accident took place at 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego CA. Mr. Cummins died at 4:45 AM at UCSD Medical Center from his injuries.
The sedan had nearly 500,000 miles when it collieded with a Toyota 4-runner driven by a 15-year-old traveling the wrong way in reverse early Thursday morning. Paramedics had to fling stacks of Cummins' newspapers from his crushed car to extricate his shortly after midnight. He died at a hospital at 4:45 a.m., stunning relatives, colleagues, church associates and an entire beach community.
From their stories emerged the image of a man dedicated to the finest things in life: his work, his church, his family and his automobile.
In Ocean Beach, the physicist was known as "The Hoarder" by some locals accustomed to his Southern charm and arrival of his car, which was covered with strips of metallic tape to thwart rain and rust.
A SPAWAR spokesman, STEVE DAVIS, called 50 years of any government service "pretty much extraordinary."
Th eoldest of his three children, 57-year-old Jacqueline Cummins, said her father's attachments are a product of a different time.
"he grew up in the (Great) Depression, and in the Depression days, he grew up where you use everything, so he just had that habit," she said. "He saves the newspapers because he knows where everythings is."
Another daughter, Jenee Lucia, 48, said the newspapers also became gifts.
He would same them and give articles to people," she said. "He knew everybody's interests, and would be there, johnny-on-the-spot, saying I've got this paper for you, here's an article on it."
With a medical condition called Dowager's hump twisting his back into a question mark, Cummins was very much like his Car. He had an aging body but a mind that fired on all cylinders. Lucia called him "one of those people who if you asked his a question about something, he knew the answer."
She laughed recalling how she took her driver's license test in her father's Mercury. She got emotional when she remembered going to a ceremony to commemorate her father's 50th anniversary at SPAWAR. She has changed careers three times, and her father would tell her to just pick one.
"He would stay as long they let him stay there," Lucia said. "I understand there were times when they shut the lights out and said, 'You need to go home."
Today would have been Cummins' 54th year with the Navy command. Most recently, he was working on a secure communications system for amphibious operations, said his supervisor, Al Lockwood.
"Work in his late years was pretty much his life," Lockwood said. "He just would rather stay at work and do that to keep his mind sharp and to keep time filled."
Lockwood said Cummins would sometimes tell him, "I have enough money to buy a Lincoln," then say his car always got him where he wanted to go.
Cummins, born in Tennessee to a father who was a farmer and a pastor and a mother who was a teacher, went to Canyon View Church of Christ in Clairemont twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday night.
"He was here every time the doors were opened," longtime church secretary Jane McCowen said. "He stood at the back door as church was letting out and would tell ladies, 'I love you, darling.' He was just a sweet sweet man."
McCowen parked next to Cummins old sedan Wednesday night.
"I saw him sitting across the room from me, and that was the last time I saw him," she said. "I saw him every Wednesday night."
Cummins daughters said he likely stopped at a restaurant for dinner after church that evening. He was a night owl and sometimes stayed late when he ate out.
He was headed westbound on Sea World Drive toward home when the 15-year-old driver missed the turnoff for Ingraham Street and put the 4-Runner in reverse. Jacqueline Cummins, who lives near her father on Saratoga Avenue, was asleep when authorities called her Thursday morning. By day's end, someone had left flowers at his cottage.
Lucia has followed news reports of the accident and wondered how the teenage driver and his parents are holding up.
"They just need to know that the bottom line in our hearts is forgiveness and what happened, happened. And I just feel that there shouldn't be two lives ruined," she said between sobs.
"I wish I could talk to them. I wish I could hold them and let them know that we're all OK. That what my dad would have wanted."
The accident took place at 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego CA. Mr. Cummins died at 4:45 AM at UCSD Medical Center from his injuries.
James Cummins was an eccentric royalty of loyalty. At 77, he attended church three times a week, was in his 54th year working for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. He amassed nearly 5,ooo hours of sick leave driving his 1979 Mercury LTD to work day after day.
The sedan had nearly 500,000 miles when it collieded with a Toyota 4-runner driven by a 15-year-old traveling the wrong way in reverse early Thursday morning. Paramedics had to fling stacks of Cummins' newspapers from his crushed car to extricate his shortly after midnight. He died at a hospital at 4:45 a.m., stunning relatives, colleagues, church associates and an entire beach community.
From their stories emerged the image of a man dedicated to the finest things in life: his work, his church, his family and his automobile.
In Ocean Beach, the physicist was known as "The Hoarder" by some locals accustomed to his Southern charm and arrival of his car, which was covered with strips of metallic tape to thwart rain and rust.
A SPAWAR spokesman, STEVE DAVIS, called 50 years of any government service "pretty much extraordinary."
Th eoldest of his three children, 57-year-old Jacqueline Cummins, said her father's attachments are a product of a different time.
"he grew up in the (Great) Depression, and in the Depression days, he grew up where you use everything, so he just had that habit," she said. "He saves the newspapers because he knows where everythings is."
Another daughter, Jenee Lucia, 48, said the newspapers also became gifts.
He would same them and give articles to people," she said. "He knew everybody's interests, and would be there, johnny-on-the-spot, saying I've got this paper for you, here's an article on it."
With a medical condition called Dowager's hump twisting his back into a question mark, Cummins was very much like his Car. He had an aging body but a mind that fired on all cylinders. Lucia called him "one of those people who if you asked his a question about something, he knew the answer."
She laughed recalling how she took her driver's license test in her father's Mercury. She got emotional when she remembered going to a ceremony to commemorate her father's 50th anniversary at SPAWAR. She has changed careers three times, and her father would tell her to just pick one.
"He would stay as long they let him stay there," Lucia said. "I understand there were times when they shut the lights out and said, 'You need to go home."
Today would have been Cummins' 54th year with the Navy command. Most recently, he was working on a secure communications system for amphibious operations, said his supervisor, Al Lockwood.
"Work in his late years was pretty much his life," Lockwood said. "He just would rather stay at work and do that to keep his mind sharp and to keep time filled."
Lockwood said Cummins would sometimes tell him, "I have enough money to buy a Lincoln," then say his car always got him where he wanted to go.
Cummins, born in Tennessee to a father who was a farmer and a pastor and a mother who was a teacher, went to Canyon View Church of Christ in Clairemont twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday night.
"He was here every time the doors were opened," longtime church secretary Jane McCowen said. "He stood at the back door as church was letting out and would tell ladies, 'I love you, darling.' He was just a sweet sweet man."
McCowen parked next to Cummins old sedan Wednesday night.
"I saw him sitting across the room from me, and that was the last time I saw him," she said. "I saw him every Wednesday night."
Cummins daughters said he likely stopped at a restaurant for dinner after church that evening. He was a night owl and sometimes stayed late when he ate out.
He was headed westbound on Sea World Drive toward home when the 15-year-old driver missed the turnoff for Ingraham Street and put the 4-Runner in reverse. Jacqueline Cummins, who lives near her father on Saratoga Avenue, was asleep when authorities called her Thursday morning. By day's end, someone had left flowers at his cottage.
Lucia has followed news reports of the accident and wondered how the teenage driver and his parents are holding up.
"They just need to know that the bottom line in our hearts is forgiveness and what happened, happened. And I just feel that there shouldn't be two lives ruined," she said between sobs.
"I wish I could talk to them. I wish I could hold them and let them know that we're all OK. That what my dad would have wanted."
The accident took place at 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego CA. Mr. Cummins died at 4:45 AM at UCSD Medical Center from his injuries.
The sedan had nearly 500,000 miles when it collieded with a Toyota 4-runner driven by a 15-year-old traveling the wrong way in reverse early Thursday morning. Paramedics had to fling stacks of Cummins' newspapers from his crushed car to extricate his shortly after midnight. He died at a hospital at 4:45 a.m., stunning relatives, colleagues, church associates and an entire beach community.
From their stories emerged the image of a man dedicated to the finest things in life: his work, his church, his family and his automobile.
In Ocean Beach, the physicist was known as "The Hoarder" by some locals accustomed to his Southern charm and arrival of his car, which was covered with strips of metallic tape to thwart rain and rust.
A SPAWAR spokesman, STEVE DAVIS, called 50 years of any government service "pretty much extraordinary."
Th eoldest of his three children, 57-year-old Jacqueline Cummins, said her father's attachments are a product of a different time.
"he grew up in the (Great) Depression, and in the Depression days, he grew up where you use everything, so he just had that habit," she said. "He saves the newspapers because he knows where everythings is."
Another daughter, Jenee Lucia, 48, said the newspapers also became gifts.
He would same them and give articles to people," she said. "He knew everybody's interests, and would be there, johnny-on-the-spot, saying I've got this paper for you, here's an article on it."
With a medical condition called Dowager's hump twisting his back into a question mark, Cummins was very much like his Car. He had an aging body but a mind that fired on all cylinders. Lucia called him "one of those people who if you asked his a question about something, he knew the answer."
She laughed recalling how she took her driver's license test in her father's Mercury. She got emotional when she remembered going to a ceremony to commemorate her father's 50th anniversary at SPAWAR. She has changed careers three times, and her father would tell her to just pick one.
"He would stay as long they let him stay there," Lucia said. "I understand there were times when they shut the lights out and said, 'You need to go home."
Today would have been Cummins' 54th year with the Navy command. Most recently, he was working on a secure communications system for amphibious operations, said his supervisor, Al Lockwood.
"Work in his late years was pretty much his life," Lockwood said. "He just would rather stay at work and do that to keep his mind sharp and to keep time filled."
Lockwood said Cummins would sometimes tell him, "I have enough money to buy a Lincoln," then say his car always got him where he wanted to go.
Cummins, born in Tennessee to a father who was a farmer and a pastor and a mother who was a teacher, went to Canyon View Church of Christ in Clairemont twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday night.
"He was here every time the doors were opened," longtime church secretary Jane McCowen said. "He stood at the back door as church was letting out and would tell ladies, 'I love you, darling.' He was just a sweet sweet man."
McCowen parked next to Cummins old sedan Wednesday night.
"I saw him sitting across the room from me, and that was the last time I saw him," she said. "I saw him every Wednesday night."
Cummins daughters said he likely stopped at a restaurant for dinner after church that evening. He was a night owl and sometimes stayed late when he ate out.
He was headed westbound on Sea World Drive toward home when the 15-year-old driver missed the turnoff for Ingraham Street and put the 4-Runner in reverse. Jacqueline Cummins, who lives near her father on Saratoga Avenue, was asleep when authorities called her Thursday morning. By day's end, someone had left flowers at his cottage.
Lucia has followed news reports of the accident and wondered how the teenage driver and his parents are holding up.
"They just need to know that the bottom line in our hearts is forgiveness and what happened, happened. And I just feel that there shouldn't be two lives ruined," she said between sobs.
"I wish I could talk to them. I wish I could hold them and let them know that we're all OK. That what my dad would have wanted."
The accident took place at 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego CA. Mr. Cummins died at 4:45 AM at UCSD Medical Center from his injuries.
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