Deepa Bharath and Deirdre Newman Steve Webster’s...

Deepa Bharath and Deirdre Newman

Steve Webster’s life revolved around Seashore Drive.

Until last year, he lived there, near 52nd Street, where grains of

sand dot the street and the smell of the ocean wafts in the air.

He started an environmental consulting business right there with

his friends in a house he shared with them. He surfed in the morning,

took fishing trips and golfed over weekends and holidays. Webster

even met his wife on Seashore Drive one afternoon when she skated

down the street, tripped and fell.

“He bandaged her, they hooked up and ended up getting married,”

said Kurt McClintock, Webster’s friend and business associate.

McClintock and many other friends will never again see the man

they loved, respected and affectionately called “Webbie.”

Webster was one of at least 188 people killed by a suspected

terrorist car bomb that blasted through a popular nightclub district

Saturday on the island of Bali.

On Tuesday, Webster’s friends created a makeshift memorial for him

at the house in the 5200 block of Seashore Drive where he lived for

several years before moving to Huntington Beach last year.

Passersby shed tears and lighted candles set on a table outside

the house. Photos of Webster surfing and fishing stood on the table

and a surfboard with the words “Legends Never Die” hung in a corner

with Webster’s smiling face on it.

McClintock said he is still in shock.

“Can you believe it?” he asked a man who was lighting a candle as

he shook his head in disbelief.

McClintock said the last time he saw Webster was right before he

left for Bali to celebrate his 41st birthday on Oct. 13.

Along with him was friend Steven Cabler, 42, of Newport Beach, who

survived and arrived back home Monday evening. Cabler was reportedly

in an area hospital recovering from his injuries.

“He was going to go to Fiji on Sept. 12, but canceled it because

of the Sept. 11 scare,” McClintock said of Webster. “He said he was

going to Bali because he needed a vacation.”

McClintock said he, like many of Webster’s friends, was hoping

against hope that Webster had been rescued and taken to Australia.

“But I had a gut feeling, looking at the intensity of that blast

on TV, that he may not have made it,” he said.

Webster’s former landlady and friend Rebecca McLaughlin described

the loss as a “worst-case scenario.”

“It’s absolutely tragic when this kind of quality leaves the

world,” she said. “He had so much more to achieve in life.”

McLaughlin called Webster a “born leader.”

“He was a take-charge kind of person who always had a positive

attitude,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “He always took

the ball and ran with it.”

When Stephen Quartararo and Webster started their Newport Beach

engineering consulting firm five years ago, they decided to name the

company S&S; Commercial Environmental Services Inc. in honor of their

first names.

The death of Webster in the alleged terrorist bombing in Bali will

not change that, Quartararo said.

The small company will go on with the same name while Quartararo

mourns the loss of a dedicated business associate who shared his

vision.

“What held us together is we had the same view on people and what

we could do for them,” Quartararo said. “He was a good guy, a kind

person and I’ll miss getting his perspective on things.”

Quartararo described Webster as an ideal business partner.

“It’s being a confidante early in the morning and late at night

for both personal [issues] and business,” Quartararo said. “It was

the kind of relationship where you can yell and scream at the other

person and keep going.”

Chas Radovich, a friend of Webster’s for more than 18 years, said

Webster always “looked so strong” that he almost seemed invincible.

“It’s almost as if it had to be something this big to take him

down,” he said. “He was a fun-loving and good-hearted person. It’s

really sad to see him taken down by terrorism.”

Webster was extremely devoted to his family. He leaves behind wife

Mona, 5-year-old son Dylan and teenage stepdaughter Samantha,

Quartararo said.

Family and friends have organized a memorial paddle-out for

Webster on Saturday at 10 a.m. off of the 52nd Street jetty.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.

DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949) 574-4221

or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.