Auto accident in Utah on way to Brigham Young University takes
lives of retired Gilroy Police Cpl. Dan Renville’s family
members
Gilroy – The wife and daughter of retired Gilroy Police Cpl. Dan Renville were killed Saturday night when their Jeep Grand Cherokee overturned after hitting a patch of black ice on Interstate 15 in Clearfield, Utah.
Kimberly ‘Kim’ Ann Renville, 49, was driving her daughter Kathryn ‘Katie’ Rose Renville, 22, back to Brigham Young University following Thanksgiving break when the she lost control of the truck around a curve. She was killed in the accident. Katie had stepped outside the truck when another vehicle skidded on the same icy spot and hit her, police said.
“We’ve been in contact with Dan,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal of GPD. “Our sympathies absolutely go out to him … it’s a huge tragedy.”
The energetic college senior graduated from Gilroy High School in 2001 where she was heavily involved in the music and theater departments.
Kim worked with Sunday School-age girls at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilroy and at The Printing Spot. She is survived by her sons Adam, 24, and Kyle, 18.
The family later moved to Oregon after Renville retired from the police department in September 2003 after nearly 30 years of service.
Kim’s best friend Michele Bozzo will fly out to Oregon Thursday for the funeral where she will deliver Katie’s eulogy.
“What a bubbly girl she was,” Bozzo said. “She took after her mom. She was a precious little soul. She was the type of person you say, ‘God – what a nice person she is,’ – they both were … They were really close.”
Kim rolled with the punches. She was easygoing, tender-hearted, kind-spirited. She was an exceptional cook and baker who loved making crafts, crocheting and collecting salt and pepper shakers.
“She was an awesome mother,” Bozzo said. “She was everybody’s mom. My daughter Nicole (whom Kim babysat for 10 years) calls her Mama Kim and (her husband) Daddy Dan.”
Before the Renvilles moved to Oregon, Kim crocheted a close friend’s son a blanket.
“She said whenever he missed her he could wrap it around himself and know she was giving him a hug,” the boy’s mother Jan Dickson said. “It’s just like her that she was driving Katie back to school. She was always on the road with her.”
Friends describe Kim as loving. She never had a bad thing to say about anyone.
Katie was just like her mom.
“She wasn’t a negative person,” said GHS graduate and theater teacher Ethan Stocks who was in choir with her. “She was outspoken and certainly let you know where she stood, but she was always very kind.”
Whether it was singing in the Chamber Choir or playing piano for the boys choirs, Renville was up for whatever was asked of her.
“I think she’s the only person that can say they sang in every choir in one year – it made her unique,” said GHS choir director Phil Robb. “She had a big smile and she couldn’t say no – that’s why she did it all.”
Her senior year she was awarded the Stache Award for going above and beyond the call of duty in her music studies, Robb said.
“She was recognized not just because she was an outstanding musician, but because she was always there, always helpful,” he said.
Katie continued working in theater at BYU serving as a lighting designer and production stage manager. Playing piano and singing were her passions. She was a senior majoring in theater stage management at the time of her death.
“She loved theater and she loved music and she was very good at both,” said Becky Day, who grew up with Katie. “I always wanted to be like her in that respect – she was good at everything.”
Both girls attended the same church and were in the GHS choirs together.
“She was a great girl,” Day said. “She just had a way of making things fun. No matter what the situation was, she always managed to find the fun in it.”
The same words came to people’s minds when remembering Kim and Katie: Sweet, kind, dedicated, dependable, energetic, bubbly, precious.
“They were very good people,” Dickson said. “They did everything together. They died together. And they’re taking care of each other now – that’s how I like to look at it.”
