Remembering crash victim’s life

Funeral is today for OCC instructor who died in plane wreck. School establishes aviation scholarship. A funeral service for Dan Neuman, the Orange Coast College aviation instructor who died in a plane crash last month, will be held this afternoon at Foothill Family Church in Lake Forest.

Neuman, 51, was flying a single-engine plane on his way back from the Baja 1000 off-road race in Mexico on Nov. 19. Shortly after 2 p.m., the plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of San Clemente, killing Neuman and his three passengers.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

In the days after his death, friends, students and colleagues remembered Neuman as a gracious and witty man with a sharp sense of humor. Jorge Sanchez, the dean of technology at OCC, delivered the news of the crash to Neuman’s students the Monday after the crash, and ended up staying to share stories with them.

“We met for a good 45 minutes, and all we did was talk about flight, about funny things that happened in class,” Sanchez said.

Neuman had been an adjunct instructor at OCC since 1988 and also trained pilots in the Royal Aviation flight club at John Wayne Airport. Two longtime OCC instructors, Chris Skytte and David Veturis, will take over his class for the remainder of the semester.

The service for Neuman will begin at 3 p.m. today at the church, at 19432 Bake Parkway.

In lieu of flowers, Neuman’s family has requested that attendees make contributions to the Dan Neuman General Aviation Memorial Scholarship, which was recently started by the OCC Foundation.

Doug Bennett, president of the OCC Foundation, said that every year the scholarship will benefit at least one student who wants to pursue a career in flight.