By Town Crier Staff Report
A year has passed since an accident took the life of longtime Los Altos resident Henry “Hank” Kolm as he crossed San Antonio Road on the morning of April 2, 2005. He was on his way to buy bread for a dinner party. At home, his wife, Irene, set the table for 10.
The driver of the SUV that struck the 6-foot-tall man who wore a turquoise sweatshirt and khaki pants did not see him in the crosswalk, according to court records.
The first fatal accident in 10 years on the busy connector between El Camino Real and Foothill Expressway drew attention to the need to improve safety for pedestrians in town. Recently, the city council approved the installation of flashing lights in crosswalks along San Antonio.
But Irene Kolm never thought traffic regulation was at fault.
“I was preparing for a dinner party. … He went to the library, then to the bank. He was crossing the street to get bread for dinner as he had hundreds of times, and he never came back,” Mrs. Kolm said last week. “I wake up and say, ‘Can this be true?’”
Mrs. Kolm recalled for the Town Crier how she relied on her husband to help her through rough spots, whether giving her a hand up a mountainside in the American Southwest or clearing a path through the throngs in Tiananmen Square.
“He was so agile,” she said. “I don’t know what actually happened (in the accident), and I never will.” On Sunday, the first anniversary of her husband’s death, Mrs. Kolm breakfasted with friends, then spent the day with her stepsons, Dave and Steve and their families. They hiked in memory of the couple’s tradition of Sunday hikes, visited the grave in Alta Mesa Memorial Park and shared the evening meal.
Mrs. Kolm’s efforts to work through her grief have been complicated by the suddenness of her husband’s death, which deprived the devoted couple of the opportunity to say goodbye, and by unanswered questions and misinformation.
For example, a May 11, 2005, Town Crier article about the accident called the driver a teen. Spencer A. Scranton was three and a half months shy of his 21st birthday when the vehicle he was driving hit Mr. Kolm in the Hawthorne Avenue crosswalk as the pedestrian neared Plaza South. Scranton was sentenced Feb. 2 to 60 days in jail, three years of probation and 350 hours of community service. He received credit for one day of jail time and is serving the rest on 30 consecutive weekends, reporting each Saturday and Sunday morning and leaving the jail at night. If he reports late on any morning, he could lose his probationary status, Los Altos Police Chief Bob Lacey said.
Mrs. Kolm said the loss of her husband cannot be compensated for by any kind of sentence. “Nothing can bring him back,” she said.
Friends and family feel the loss deeply, as well. Mr. Kolm’s goodnaturedness, kind heart and can-do attitude won him friendships that endured for decades. More than 500 mourners filled the synagogue of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills for his funeral, and friends came to the house “in droves,” Mrs. Kolm said.
A life in brief
Hank Kolm was born in Berlin, the son of a bank manager. After Hitler came to power, Kolm senior arranged for his family to come to the United States, eventually settling among relatives in Richmond, Va., when the younger Kolm was 6.
After graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in electrical engineering, Hank Kolm served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. “He loved the Navy,” Mrs. Kolm said with a laugh, “because he didn’t have to worry about what to wear!”
Later, he worked for a few Silicon Valley companies before he started his own business as a manufacturer’s representative. He was held in high regard professionally by his peers.
The athletic Mr. Kolm, a youthful 74 at his death, was known for his love of the outdoors. He was an active member of the Sierra Club and the Western Wheeler’s Bicycle Club.
He gave generously to charitable causes, including the Peninsula Open Space Trust and the Los Altos Educational Foundation.
He was also an avid reader and an artist. His paintings, interspersed with Mrs. Kolm’s photographs, adorn walls throughout the home. One of his pieces shows both his sense of humor and his practicality: a sculpture called “66 Mustang” - really part of the fender of a 1966 Ford Mustang, bent into an angular spiral and attached to a marble base.
He was handy with tools, making airplanes and blocks for his grandchildren, building the benches and flower boxes for the garden he tended himself and even building kayaks for his sons when they were in Boy Scouts.
Longtime friends say the
Kolms were a wonderful couple. Mrs. Kolm describes her marriage as one in which each partner “could realize his potential.” Aug. 7 would have been the couple’s 17th wedding anniversary.
“Hank was a loving husband and father and an adoring grandfather to his seven grandchildren,” Mrs. Kolm said.
Mr. Kolm is sorely missed by his family, friends and the community he lived in for nearly 40 years.
