Rick L. Tomlin, 46, was remembered by family as a good father and a man who hated violence. He was a staunch Republican who loved the music of Beatle John Lennon. He was a car collector and shade-tree mechanic who labored over a 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner. He frequently visited with schoolchildren to warn them of the precautions and pitfalls of driving on America’s highways. Tomlin, a U.S. Department of Transportation motor vehicle safety officer, was talking on the telephone with his wife the morning of April 19 when the line went dead. He and his wife, Tina, had two sons, Richard and Jeremy, aged 24 and 21 at the time of their father’s death.