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Rodney Edgar Goonetilleke

Born: October 31st, 1944
In Ambewala, Sri Lanka,
to Edgar and Derra Goonetilleke

Passed Away: Friday June 22nd , 2007 in San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico.
Funeral Service and burial was held in San Quintin. His body was laid to rest in the “Panteon English Cemetary” by the bay.
Rodney is survived by his six daughters (Shilani Hemming, Dawn Goonetilleke, Kuipo Goonetilleke, Derra Gibler, Moani Goonetilleke, Malia Dierling), his five grand Children, his Father Edgar, his siblings Nissanka, Priyantha
and Nigel, his in-laws John Milligan and Pam, Sheila and Linda Goonetilleke, and many friends that were an extended family to him.

He was preceded in death by his Mother Derra and his sister Shilani Milligan.

Rodney was known for his love of music and his ability to reach out to others. A man who immigrated to Missouri and married Pat in his twenties and he lived in Los Angeles for some time. Rodney later sailed by his own boat to Honolulu, Hawaii where he raised his young family and loved outdoor life and made helping others as a prime purpose of his life. He helped hundreds of Sri Lankans who came to Holnolulu’s halls of learning at the University of Hawaii and the famed East West Center. He was such a friendly man native Hawaiians once allowed him to live in the Hawaiian reserve only meant for the native islanders.

He then shared his abode with this writer and the late Titus Ratnayaka and we would have been the only Sri Lankans who ever lived on a homeland reservation. We roamed in the forest collected green jack fruits and cocoanuts and cooked meals with beef curry reminiscent of home meals back in Sri Lanka. A true practicing Christian he made it a point to see that every religious friend who visited the island for vacation was helped to the fullest extent. A man who preferred friendships to money, whenever a friend offered money for a ride he gave them from the airport to the hotel he got offended and complained about it.

He was never a traditional man, who would live in a palatial house in a concrete jungle. He rather preferred a boat berthed at a beautiful beach or a tent erected on a jungle patch to live. After a brief period in Los Alamitos, California he finally moved to the beautiful and tropical Baja California to live.
Rodney survived rheumatic fever as a child in Sri Lanka, suffered many serious consequences of diabetes as an adult, and finally had his life extended and improved as a result of a donated kidney from a friend Blake La Mont.
It’s the natural beauty of Mexico and the simple people of the country which finally took him to live a contended comfortable life surrounded by hundreds of friends speaking an unknown language in a yet unknown land in San Quintin. He was a man who was capable of calling any human being his brother or sister immediately after meeting one. To the amazement of many the strangers also embraced him with the same warmth and friendship. He will be missed by hundreds of his friends.
-Walter Jayawardhana

There will be a memorial service for Rodney at 10:30 AM July 21st ,at RUSH PARK AUDITORIUM
3021 Blume Drive
Rossmoor, CA 90720
(562) 430-3707
(310)-749-1655 for Nigel
(Please take Freeway 605 and exit Katella Avenue , merge into Katella Ave. via exit ID towards Los Alamitos, turn right onto Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos becomes Seal Beach Blvd., turn right onto Rossmoor Center Way, turn left onto Montecito Road, turn right onto Tucker lane, turn left on to Blume Drive, End at 3001 Blume Dr
Rossmoor, CA 90720-4638, USA

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