Kit was a friend of mine and I gave him drum lessons while in Jr. High. He died sometime in the early 60's, I believe we were still in school, or possibly the summer after from a head on crash with a semi truck.
He and his younger were killed. It was in the summer of '61. They were driving into Hollywood to meet their father. He was driving a Renault, the French made car with the engine in the rear. I remember reading about it in the Progress Bulletin. I believe they even had a photo of the wreck . It made quite an impression on me, I guess that's why I remember it.
It was the summer of 1962. I remember it vividly. I was traveling abroad and got the news via a letter from my parents. I didn't know the younger brother Damon, but I knew Kit well. He was a good friend and used to come over to my house to bounce on the trampoline with me. The year of his death in the car accident is given correctly on the memorial page that lists all our classmates who have passed.
Kit was a very smart and reliably witty member of every class. He taught himself to play the guitar, but being left handed, played it strung upside down and fingered the chords accordingly. He used to quip that Kit Rust was only a nom de guerre and that his real name was Christopher Corrosion. The sudden loss of both Kit and Damon was devastating to the school, the town, and most of all their mother who lost her only sons in that tragic moment.
Kit, Opie (Michael) Sanders, Brian Moering and I were best friends who took great pleasure in referring to ourselves as “Quatre”. His Dad was a Disney producer who arranged to get us into the sound stage to watch a day of filming of Mary Poppins and we met Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. He not only played drums but played numerous gigs with a junior two years ahead of us in a two man jazz ensemble. He was a lover of all life had to offer.
We loved to spend Saturday nights drinking beer and smoking rum smoked crooks and driving through “mile of dips’ at insane speeds, or just hanging out in the orange groves and the “Claremont Jungle,” harassing college couples parked in there by jumping on their car bumpers and then running like hell. Our greatest achievement was using gasoline to burn a 4 in the middle of Mr. Bookout’s lawn one night and placing 50+ ‘Borrowed” “For Sale” signs on the Vice Principal’s front lawn (which earned us a trip to the Claremont Police Station where we had to wait for our parents to come down and pick us up.)
Kit was special in so many ways and I doubt he ever knew anyone who didn’t like and enjoy being around him. His loss that summer visiting his father in Burbank impacted my life in so many ways to this very day, and I still think of him often.
Robert T. Balch (Balch)
Kit was a friend of mine and I gave him drum lessons while in Jr. High. He died sometime in the early 60's, I believe we were still in school, or possibly the summer after from a head on crash with a semi truck.
Alot of us attended his memorial service.
Benedict (Benny) Heyer
He and his younger were killed. It was in the summer of '61. They were driving into Hollywood to meet their father. He was driving a Renault, the French made car with the engine in the rear. I remember reading about it in the Progress Bulletin. I believe they even had a photo of the wreck . It made quite an impression on me, I guess that's why I remember it.
Marc Savage
It was the summer of 1962. I remember it vividly. I was traveling abroad and got the news via a letter from my parents. I didn't know the younger brother Damon, but I knew Kit well. He was a good friend and used to come over to my house to bounce on the trampoline with me. The year of his death in the car accident is given correctly on the memorial page that lists all our classmates who have passed.
Peter Keenan Smalley (Known At CHS As Peter Hoff)
Kit was a very smart and reliably witty member of every class. He taught himself to play the guitar, but being left handed, played it strung upside down and fingered the chords accordingly. He used to quip that Kit Rust was only a nom de guerre and that his real name was Christopher Corrosion. The sudden loss of both Kit and Damon was devastating to the school, the town, and most of all their mother who lost her only sons in that tragic moment.
Michael Scott Gatzke
Kit, Opie (Michael) Sanders, Brian Moering and I were best friends who took great pleasure in referring to ourselves as “Quatre”. His Dad was a Disney producer who arranged to get us into the sound stage to watch a day of filming of Mary Poppins and we met Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. He not only played drums but played numerous gigs with a junior two years ahead of us in a two man jazz ensemble. He was a lover of all life had to offer.We loved to spend Saturday nights drinking beer and smoking rum smoked crooks and driving through “mile of dips’ at insane speeds, or just hanging out in the orange groves and the “Claremont Jungle,” harassing college couples parked in there by jumping on their car bumpers and then running like hell. Our greatest achievement was using gasoline to burn a 4 in the middle of Mr. Bookout’s lawn one night and placing 50+ ‘Borrowed” “For Sale” signs on the Vice Principal’s front lawn (which earned us a trip to the Claremont Police Station where we had to wait for our parents to come down and pick us up.)
Kit was special in so many ways and I doubt he ever knew anyone who didn’t like and enjoy being around him. His loss that summer visiting his father in Burbank impacted my life in so many ways to this very day, and I still think of him often.
Michael Scott Gatzke