A family and community mourned a pair of deaths over the weekend, as two members of the same Valencia family were remembered at a joint service at Memorial Lawn.

Medical examiners identified Patti Jo Rhode, 49, of Valencia, as the woman who was struck and killed on Sierra Highway on Nov. 7 in a vehicle vs. pedestrian collision.

Her father, Steven Michael Dixon, 76, a longtime respected and well-liked former firefighter and professor at College of the Canyons, also died Nov. 7. Dixon died from complications during a surgery hours before his daughter’s crash, at the hospital.

Dixon joined COC in 1998, and “he quickly set about growing the Fire Technology Department, increasing student enrollment, adding equipment and expanding training partnerships with Los Angeles County while serving as department chair,” said Eric Harnish, vice president of public information, advocacy and external relations.

COC officials credited Dixon with tripling the Fire Technology Department’s enrollment during his tenure, and also helped arrange the donation of a fire engine from the city of Los Angeles Fire Department. Dixon chaired the program at COC after spending more than 30 years with the Manhatten Beach Fire Department.

He led the college’s Fire Tech Department until 2012, when he retired a second time.

“When Steve wasn’t instructing his classes how to care for the engine, he could be seen driving it in the Santa Clarita Fourth of July Parade,” Harnish added.

Patti Haley, who chairs COC’s EMT program and  shared an office with Dixon and also considered him e  mentor.

“I never ever heard him say an unkind word about anyone,” Haley said, “and he had an absolutely amazing sense of humor, and he absolutely adored his family. And he loved fishing.”