By JULIE KIRKWOOD
News staff
MARBLEHEAD -- Dr. Frederick Rimmele III was on his way to California Tuesday for a medical conference and bird-watching expedition when terrorists hijacked his plane, United Flight 175, and smashed it into the World Trade Center.
Rimmele, a 32-year-old family practice doctor at the Hunt Center in Danvers, died in the crash along with the other 64 people on board.
His wife, Kimberly Trudel, drove him to the airport that morning from their home in Marblehead for the 8:14 a.m. flight.
"I was just so happy that I dropped him off at the airport," Trudel said yesterday. She had no idea that would be the last time she would see him.
"It's just so difficult to understand why something like this would happen to such a wonderful person," Trudel said.
Rimmele, an Eagle Scout, personified the clean-cut, all-American guy, even in his school years.
He grew up in Clifton, N.J., and attended the private Montclaire Kimberley Academy. He graduated from Amherst College Phi Beta Kappa in 1990 with degrees in chemistry and English. He rowed on the Amherst crew team, and he wrote and edited the campus humor magazine.
At Duke University's medical school, Rimmele wrote a humor column called the "Septic Skeptic" in the monthly medical student newspaper, which he co-edited.
"He just had a great sense of humor," said Dr. Aliza Acker, his colleague at the family practice in Danvers. "He was very, very sharp."
Rimmele had always planned to be a doctor. "It's something he knew he wanted to do since early childhood," his wife said.
Rimmele and Trudel met on a hiking trip in Maine. They married four years ago, and after Rimmele finished his residency at Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice in 1997, they bought a house in Marblehead.
"He and Kim had a beautiful relationship," Acker said. "She was an inspiration in his life. He was so madly in love with her. Light shone from inside him when they were together."
Trudel, a vice president for a software company in Washington, D.C., introduced her husband to bird watching, which became his passion. The couple took trips to the Caribbean and South America to watch birds.
They also enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing and various other outdoor activities together. Rimmele's favorite place to hike was Mount Katahdin, at Baxter State Park in Maine.
Rimmele's death has been devastating to his colleagues at work, Acker said. He was an honest, direct friend and a thorough physician.
"Fred was very knowledgeable and very conscientious," she said. "He would check and recheck."
He was also deeply committed to his patients. "He would call them personally with their test results," Acker said. "He would stop by before and after work if his patients were in the hospital, just to see them."
Rimmele split his time between seeing patients at the family practice and teaching in the Beverly Hospital residency program. The day before his fateful trip to California, he had held a well-attended clinic and was feeling great, Acker said.
"He was really looking forward to the trip," she said. "He was in a wonderful mood when he left."
He left light-hearted notes around the office for his co-workers. "He was really bubbly," Acker said, then paused. "I think that's a good way to remember him."
Trudel agreed that if there's anything comforting to be found in the tragedy, it's that her husband was so happy when he left.
"He boarded this flight with the intention of doing the two things he loved best," Trudel said, "medicine and bird watching."
The doctor's office plans to call each of Rimmele's patients to let them know about the plane crash, Acker said. His patients at the family practice ranged from infants to the elderly.
"All of us as a community are really lessened by the fact that he isn't around anymore," Acker said. "He was a very alive person, passionate, a lot of energy. ... We will miss him so much."
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A memorial service for Dr. Rimmele has been scheduled for Monday, Sept. 24, at 11 a.m. at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Route 114 in Marblehead.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA, 22203. Donors are asked to reference account 2861662 in making a donation.
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