RANDOLPH — A Randolph couple killed when a tree fell on their car in Mendham Township during Hurricane Sandy were "wonderful people" who "gave a lot of their time to activities and other people," according to a close family friend.
Richard Everett, 54, known to his friends as "Rich," was a senior vice president at Opthotech, a biotechnology research company in Princeton seeking ways to prevent visual loss by people over 50.
Everett was a "very accomplished guy'' who was also a talented carpenter and a volunteer in Morris County 4-H, said John Bond of Mendham Township, a fellow congregant at Hope Church in Randolph. Everett taught a woodworking class for 4-H.
Elizabeth Everett, 46, known as "Beth," was an active volunteer with Morris Habitat for Humanity who served on Hope Church's "benevolence team," helping make decisions on how to spend money to help the poor in Morris County, Bond said.
Both were killed when a 100-foot-tall, 3-foot-wide tree fell on their car as they drove through Mendham Township at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.
The couple was returning to Randolph from their farm in Long Valley, where they may have been "battening the hatches" in preparation for the storm, Bond said.
Their sons, Theodore, or "Theo," 14, and Pierce, 11, were sitting in the back seat and survived.
Two older daughters, Zoe and Talia, were not in the car, Bond said.
Arrangements are being made with relatives who will be caring for the children, said Mendham Township Police Chief Steve Crawford.
The accident was personal in more ways than one for Bond, an electrical engineer and a volunteer firefighter with Mendham Township's Ralston Engine Co.
Bond didn't know who the victims were when he was dispatched to the accident scene during the hurricane.
Bond was with a firefighting group that had been responding to another emergency in a different part of the township and said "we got trapped" by fallen trees en route to the accident.
The group cut through three trees, but when it got to a fourth tree, it was tangled in a high-voltage line and the firefighters were unable to proceed, Bond said. Another group wound up going to the accident, where both husband and wife were pronounced dead at the scene.
"It was a horrific thing," Bond said.
In happier times, Bond said, he and his wife, Amy, who also have four children, often went to the Everetts' house for "small group study" in which church members discuss a particular topic or a subject in the Bible and "apply it to your daily life," Bond said. "You pray together and you eat together," he said.
Other times, Pierce and Theo would come to the Bond house to play, Bond said.
Bond also recalled Richard Everett's great carpentry job when he "completely redid" the kitchen in his house, including the floors and the cabinetry.
"I'm sure my wife would enjoy it if I did that to our house," Bond said.
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