The deaths of two Denver classmates, a brother and sister, in a vacation home that was struck by a plane has hit hard a local, tight-knit school.
Hesam “Sam” Farrar Masoudi, 12, and his sister, Grace Masoudi, 7, would have been seventh- and third-graders, respectively, this year at St. Anne’s Episcopal School in Denver.
The children were killed Monday morning when a small plane crashed into a seaside home in Gearhart, Ore., on the state’s coast. Word of the crash spread quickly through St. Anne’s, where students, staff and parents are struggling with the deaths.
“Right now we are pulling together and supporting each other in the ways we can,” said Alan Smiley, who heads the pre-K-through-eighth-grade school with 420 students.
Some classmates of the Masoudi children have taken advantage of counseling resources the school has made available to them, Smiley said.
“We are trying to do everything we can to meet those needs,” he said.
Smiley described Sam as a “delightful, intelligent, articulate, creative young man” who was very popular with classmates.
“He was a stellar student, just a great all-around kid,” Smiley said. Sam especially enjoyed science and the experiments involved with the subject.
Grace was a “delightful, bubbly, energetic young girl” who was “loved and admired by all her classmates,” Smiley said. “She was at an age where she was just beginning to discover her areas of passion and interests.”
The children’s parents, Drs. Frederick Masoudi and Marie Johnson-Masoudi, were out for an early- morning walk with their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, 14, when the vacation house was leveled.
Two people in the plane, pilot Jason Ketchson and passenger Frank Toohey, were killed in the crash. Another child in the home, Julia Reimann, 10, of Beaverton, Ore., a cousin of the Masoudi children, also was killed, authorities said.
Three others in the home, Ruth Johnson-Reimann, 47, and two children, Christopher Reimann, 13, and Sarah Reimann, 11, survived and were flown to Portland for treatment at a burn center. Details on their conditions were not available.
“This is just a tragic, tragic loss,” Smiley said. “It is something we are all struggling to work through.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
