Paul Lanz Speegle Jr. was born February 27, 1944 in Bexar County, Texas. He was in the Menlo-Atherton sophomore class of 1959-1960 and is pictured in the yearbook. Paul was the son and namesake of the well-respected drama and music critic for the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, and he certainly had a taste for the theatrical himself. A painter of considerable renown, he regularly dressed in elegant, semi-Edwardian finery, and he was active in two local drama groups, the Teen Players at the Palo Alto Community Center and the Comedia Theater in Menlo Park. Paul and classmate Lowell Clukas were totally into Rimbaud poetry and they were just flaunting it. From Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson

Paul died at age 16 on February 20, 1961 in an auto accident while riding with Jerry Garcia and three other young men, after an evening of playing charades and drinking at a friend’s house on Santa Cruz Ave. Paul is interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, Section Oak Grove, Sub 3, Lot 730. His parents are Paul Lanz Speegle Sr. and Lillian May Omara; his younger sister is Susan. There is a memorial for Paul on Findagrave.com

From a history of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead: On February 20, 1961, Jerry Garcia entered a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk with Paul Speegle, a 16-year-old artist and acquaintance; Jack Royerton, a childhood friend and poet from Indiana; Lee Adams, the driver of the car; and Alan Trist, a companion. At 1:50 am the car was speeding south on Junipero Serra Boulevard near the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto at 90-miles per hour when Adams failed to negotiate a curve, lost control, slashed through a fence. The car rolled over twice and came to rest on its wheels.

Garcia was hurled through the windshield of the car into a nearby field with such force he was literally thrown out of his shoes and later did not recall the ejection. Lee Adams, the driver, and Alan Trist, who was seated in the back, were thrown from the car as well, suffering from abdominal injuries and a spine fracture, respectively. Royerton suffered a mild concussion and shattered ulna. Garcia escaped with a broken collarbone, while Paul Speegle, still in the car, was fatally injured.

The accident served as an awakening for Garcia, who later commented, “That's where my life began. Before then I was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance.”