Tsunami sent Park City man into action

He was in Park City when the tidal wave struck Thailand, safe in his house halfway around the Earth and 6,600 feet above sea level.

But the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami hit home fast enough for Dave Rockwood. The water that killed in excess of 200,000 people in the region had barely receded when he turned on the television and saw his good friend, Lynn Thornton, interviewed in Phuket, Thailand, after narrowly escaping being washed away.

Other familiar scenes, faces and memories soon followed for a man who served a two-year LDS mission in Thailand in the 1970s and has spent the past two decades as a Thai-American businessman with headquarters in Bangkok and Park City.

Those Thai people swamped by disaster were his people.

"My first thought," says Rockwood, "is there has to be something we can do."

Was he ever right.

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It was a year ago yesterday that Dave Rockwood, international businessman, flew to Thailand and turned into Dave Rockwood, international relief volunteer middleman.

In the months since, he has facilitated all sorts of aid. Along the way he has escorted the Thai ambassador to the United States, Khun Kasit, to meet with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.; he has personally thanked LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, on behalf of the Thai people, for the church's tsunami relief assistance; he has brought Dr. KhunYing Porntip Rojanasunan, Thailand's internationally known forensics scientist, to the University of Utah campus; and, perhaps most significantly, he has connected Sorenson Genomics, a Utah company that specializes in DNA identification, with the Thai morgues identifying tsunami victims. With the blessings of Utah billionaire James Sorenson, and the brokering of Dave Rockwood, Sorenson Genomics has donated millions of dollars to the tsunami cause.

Along the way, a charitable Web site — www.thaitsunamihelp.org — was set up as a vehicle for people to donate goods and cash. Everything from surfboards from California to painting supplies from Costco have made their way across the ocean.

Dave has been overwhelmed by the response. "I'm not saying all has gone smooth," he says. "Some negative things have happened. But overall, all I go back to is I can't believe how hard people are willing to work for someone they don't know."

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