Services Today for Man Killed in Fall on Bike Trail

Funeral services are scheduled today for a Fountain Valley man who died of severe head injuries after falling from his bicycle while out for a ride with one of his sons on the Santa Ana River trail.

James John Halbur, 45, fell about noon Sunday while attempting to avoid hitting another bicyclist on a part of the trail near MacArthur Boulevard. He died Monday morning at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

“According to what the doctors observed in the hospital, he was not wearing a helmet,” said hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff.

An electrical engineer with Southern California Edison, Halbur was “the kind of father who was always there,” said his daughter Heidi. “There are five of us kids in the family, and he spent a lot of time with us. We did a lot of things as a family.”

Halbur’s daughter said her father and mother, Shirley, went to “every volleyball game and every band competition” in which their children participated. She said her father “was really interested in physical things and played a lot of sports in college. . . . He liked to hike, bike and go camping. He had a real sense of humor and was really fun to be around.”

Her parents also had a commitment to children other than their own, she said.

“My parents were really into foster parents (programs). . . . That’s how we adopted my younger sister,” she said. The Halburs participated in the Holy Family Services foster program for about six years.

Services will be held at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fountain Valley. Burial will be at Good Shepherd Cemetery in Huntington Beach.

Halbur is survived by his wife, Shirley; daughters Heidi, Carolyn and Sara; sons Cletus and Luke; father, Raymond; and sisters Elaine Koissian, Mary Harfst and Rita Ehring.