OBITUARY

Jack Raymond Handy, founder of Erickson Yachts and the owner and

director of Newport Beach’s Fun Zone Boat Co., died in his home Oct. 21,

2000. He was 71.

Handy had struggled for some time with cancer and other health

problems.

Handy grew up in Yorba Linda and attended Fullerton High School. He

played center field for the Cleveland Indians after graduation and went

on to become a captain in the U.S. Army Infantry.

A frustrating experience in trying to order a yacht led Handy to start

his own company. Willem Wiessner, the new owner of the Fun Zone Boat Co.,

said Handy placed an order for a boat only to be told that he would need

to wait three months.

“Ray couldn’t wait to have somebody else build his boat,” Wiessner

said. So started his own company and built his own boat -- all in the

same time it would have taken to receive his ordered yacht.

Handy met his wife, Dorothy, in 1984, and they were married in 1986.

Handy took over operations of the Fun Zone Boat Co. in 1995, following

the death of Dorothy’s father, Dal Grettenberg, who founded the company.

He made headlines in 1995 by buying the glass-bottom vessel Phoenix

from its Catalina Island owners, restoring it and bringing it into

service at the Fun Zone.

Fun Zone owner Joe Tunstall said Handy’s business style was informal

but effective.

“Ray was a handshake type of guy,” Tunstall said. “He and I would make

agreements with each other and months later we’d get around to writing

them down.”

Handy’s approach to the minutia of city harbor regulations was rather

similar, said Harbor Inspector Wes Armand.

“He was kind of a gruff type as far as his responses to city

enforcement, but he always complied and always had a big heart about it.

Behind his bark was a very gentle person that had people’s well-being at

heart,” Armand said.

Handy’s passing, Tunstall said, meant the loss of one of the

peninsula’s more distinct personalities.

Handy is survived by his wife, Dorothy; son, Jack Raymond Handy; and

grandchildren, Katherine and Robert Handy.

There will be a public memorial service at 11 a.m. Nov. 4 aboard the

M.S. Phoenix at the Balboa Fun Zone.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Hoag Hospital

Foundation, P.O. Box 6100, Newport Beach CA 92658-6100.