Couple killed in car crash grew up in Palo Alto, remembered as dedicated parents

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

The couple who were killed in a car crash in Redwood City were remembered as truly dedicated parents and a “model couple” who both grew up in Palo Alto.

Grace Spiridon, 42 and Gregory Ammen, 44, both of San Carlos died Friday and their twin 7-year-old daughters were injured in the crash.

Spiridon worked for Google and Ammen worked for Dolby.

The two knew each other for years before getting together when Spiridon was 24 or 25, recalled her longtime friend Stephanie King.

Spiridon and Ammen both went to what’s now Greene Middle School. But it wasn’t until high school at Paly did they get to know each other, said King.

When Ammen was home from college during Spiridon’s senior year of high school, the two began to hang out. King says this seemed to occur during Spiridon’s time at UC-Davis too.

But one thing was for certain, they were a unit. Sometimes King would jokingly refer to them as the G-Unit.
“They were such a fun couple. And they were so thrilled to have these girls,” King said.

To celebrate the news they were having twins? Ammen and Spiridon watched the movie Twins starring Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, which King says was emblematic of the couple’s sense of humor.

King said the girls were showered with love by their parents and family, recalling last year when Spiridon signed up to be one of the girls’ room parent. And to make sure there was balance, Ammen signed up to be the other twin’s room parent.

King met Spiridon in the 6th grade and were in the same class. Their group of friends would ride bikes between each other’s homes, but it was Spiridon’s mother who really loved to host the friends and would feed them.

Spiridon and King were part of a core group of friends who have remained close over the years, and that’s grown to include Ammen.

Ammen was a Boy Scout all through high school and participated in band, King said. As an adult, he would look out for Spiridon’s friends, such as giving King advice on an out-of-code fire escape at a building in which she lived.

The couple would often throw parties, with Ammen often behind the grill or the bar, relishing in his hosting duties, King said.

Spiridon played soccer in high school. And as adults, the two often biked or ran together. In fact, it was during a run off of Skyline that Ammen proposed to Spiridon, King said.

Both Spiridon and Ammen had knacks for building networks everywhere they went, be it college, work, or even by joining the Facebook group “Parents of multiples on the Peninsula” which is dedicated to parents raising multiple babies born at the same time.

With their parents gone, King said it’s now the community’s time to care for these girls.

“They’re 7 and in a very tragic and violent way had their parents taken away from them,” King said. “We want to protect them and make sure they are provided for.”

The girls were banged up from the crash, and one has a broken bone or two, but they are being cared for by their family.

Spiridon’s sister, Liza Spiridon and some friends have started a GoFundMe, https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-madison-olivia.
Spiridon and Ammen’s car, which was carrying the family of four, was hit as they were turning from Finger Avenue onto El Camino Real. The drag racer’s car clipped the family’s vehicle, spinning it into a building where it caught fire.

Police took the family out of the car and they were rushed to Stanford Hospital. The three boys in the other car — a 17-year-old driver and two passengers, each 15 — went to the hospital, too. The boys’ injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The driver of the car that collided with the Ammen’s car is two months shy of his 18th birthday, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. This means the driver will go through the juvenile court system. The DA’s office has not decided what charges the driver will face.