Diamonds Are Forever

LOW couple killed in car wreck SERVICES PLANNED

Lake of the Woods couple killed in car accident remembered as creative, spontaneous and beloved
By LAURA MOYER
Date published: 8/16/2008

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/082008/08162008/403265

They met at a Halloween party in Michigan. He went as a train engineer, and she went as the love bug--and bit him.
It took.
Howard and Nancy Diamond of Lake of the Woods in Orange County would have celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary next week.
But as they returned Thursday night from celebrating his 80th birthday with family in Michigan, their station wagon was struck head-on by a pickup that had crossed into oncoming traffic near Martinsburg, W.Va.
The Diamonds were killed instantly.
Yesterday, Nancy Diamond's sister and Lake of the Woods neighbor Louisa W. Rucker said family members are devastated. But they're also savoring memories of a vibrant, creative couple who had six children between them and many loving friends.
The Diamonds had lived at Lake of the Woods since 2000, after a weekend visit to Rucker's family turned into a home-buying excursion. They met with a real-estate agent on the second day of the trip, looked at two houses and bought the second one.
Howard Diamond walked in the door, looked around and said: "I could live here. I'm going to buy this house," Rucker recalled.
The Diamonds were active in the community, and attended Beth Sholom Temple.
Nancy Diamond, 70, was an artist who exhibited at Brush Strokes Gallery and also taught summer programs in the area. She was a member of the Artists of Windmore in Culpeper and the LOW Visual Arts Council.
She made and sold jewelry--"handcrafted cats that made people smile," Rucker said.
From childhood, she always had a pad and pencil in her hand, Rucker recalled, and the detailed drawings in those sketchbooks serve as a visual record of her life.
Howard Diamond was a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Michigan and owned Diamond General Electronics. Earlier in his career, he invented one of the first fetal heart monitors, Rucker said.
He had recently taught graduate courses at the University of Virginia, she said.
He also played "a sassy harmonica" with the Flat Run Ramblers, an eclectic folk-bluegrass group based in Orange, Rucker said.
The couple shared a love of travel and a spontaneous sense of humor.
Once, on a cruise, they threw together a getup for an impromptu costume party. They took a quilt off the bed in their stateroom, fashioned an oversized needle out of aluminum foil, and tied a piece of string to it.
Howard Diamond wrapped the quilt around himself like flowing robes, and Nancy Diamond followed behind him as if sewing those robes--"Lord" and "Taylor."
Their travels also took them to China, through South America as far as the Falklands, and on a 19-day trawler trip across the Pacific to Fiji.
West Virginia State Police Sgt. C.C. Morton said the crash happened about 9 p.m. Thursday near Martinsburg. The driver of the pickup, 40-year-old Troy Bean, was heading north on Interstate 81 when he sideswiped another car, driven by 37-year-old Lonn Stevenson of Hagerstown, Md., Morton said.
That incident forced both vehicles into the southbound lanes, where Stevenson's car stopped in a lane that was closed for construction. She had only minor injuries, the state police sergeant said.
Bean's pickup hit the Diamonds' station wagon, which Howard Diamond was driving. Though both Diamonds were wearing their seat belts, they died at the scene.
Bean was taken by helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital, and is expected to recover. An investigation is continuing, and he will be charged in the accident, Morton said.
Laura Moyer: 540/374-5417Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com

A memorial service for Howard and Nancy Diamond will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Beth Sholom Temple with Rabbi Devorah Lynn officiating.
A funeral for the couple will be held in Ann ArborMichigan, but arrangements were incomplete yesterday, said Nancy Diamond's sister, Louisa W. Rucker.

UPDATE: Services will be held at 10AM on Tuesday in AnnArbor, MI. More details to follow.