Relatives mourning the loss of a teacher and volunteer rescue worker who died while searching for a missing Irvine man on Mt. Baldy over the weekend remembered him as an “exceptional human” and a role model in a statement issued Sunday, Dec. 15.
Tim Staples, 32, was one of 126 people who were out searching Saturday, Dec. 14, in rugged, snow-covered terrain for Sreenivas Mokkapati, a hiker from Irvine who had been missing for six days. The nine-year veteran of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department's volunteer search-and-rescue team became separated from his partner and was later pronounced dead after apparently falling down an ice chute.
“Tim was an exceptional human who gave his life serving others,” Staples’ relatives said in their statement.
Apart from his volunteer rescue efforts, he worked as a social science and English instructor for his Alma mater, Damien High, a Catholic all-boys school in La Verne. He had also coached track and field.
“He was a brother, uncle, nephew and friend to so many,” the Staples family’s statement said.
“During his teaching career, he gained the respect and love of his students as he was an exceptional role model who cared deeply for them.”
Loved ones went on to say that his death “left a hole in our heart that may never be filled.”
He had recently married, and was survived by his wife, Katie Amrhein, as well as his parents, Dan and Barbara Staples. The teacher and volunteer rescuer was honored at a vigil hosted by relatives of Mokkapati, the man Staples was trying to find, at Damien High on Sunday evening, officials said.
Dozens of people were seen gathered with flowers and candles in Staples’ memory in broadcast footage from the campus quad that afternoon. Some wept and embraced as speakers remembered the volunteer’s selflessness while mourning his death.
“I’m very sorry for this, and very sorry for the family,” the still missing hiker’s son, Shavran Mokkapati, said during the event.
He went on to say that he never expected a search for his father would result in tragedy for “one of the volunteers that we so dearly respect,” ABC7 reported.
“We don’t want them to feel guilty for this,” SBCSD search-and-rescue volunteer Michelle Walsh told CBS2/KCAL9. “This is what we do.”
Staples was passionate about the volunteer search-and-rescue work he performed during free time, Damien High Principal Merritt Hemenway told the station. He said the popular teacher and coach’s face would often be flushed when he came to work after spending his weekends climbing remote mountains in search of missing people.
“He’d come in on a Monday with a red face, and we’d joke with him; ‘you went to the beach huh?’” Hemenway told ABC7. “And he goes, ‘no, I was up in the mountain trying to find someone.’”
Meanwhile search operations to find Mokkapoti were suspended Saturday and subject to reevaluation in the wake of Staples’ death, sheriff’s officials said.
The community is invited to a prayer service set for Monday at 3:30 p.m. for Staples at Damien’s Event Center, the school said on its website. The school is at 2280 Damien Ave. in La Verne.
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