LOSS HITS ESPECIALLY HARD IN VALLEY WHERE HE GREW UP.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Dana Bartholomew Staff Writers

ENCINO - The family and friends of Danny Pearl vowed Thursday that The Wall Street Journal reporter will live on in the powerful legacy of a man who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and went on to pursue truth in the midst of terrorism - at the cost of his life.

With the confirmation of Pearl's death, family and friends wept tears of sorrow and anger, then testified to the reporter's enduring mark on the world.

For Pearl's family, including parents Judea and Ruth, who live in Encino, and his two sisters, the grief was deeply personal. They released a statement calling their only son their ``walking sunshine of truth, humor, friendship and compassion.''

The enormity of the tragedy rippled through the quiet neighborhood, where news vans lined the street next to the Pearls' gray, two-story New Orleans-style home with a long veranda, ornate ironwork and petunias flanking the path to the door.

``We feel very bad, very very sad,'' said Sherrly Rafizadeh, 31, who lives around the corner from the Pearls. ``If we could be there for them, in any way possible, we would. They didn't deserve this.''

Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23, while working on a story about a possible link between shoe-bomb suspect Richard Reid and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Two photos released by his kidnappers showed Pearl with his hands bound, and another with a gun pointed at his head.

His wife, Mariane, pregnant with the couple's first child, pleaded in a TV interview for Pearl's life, even offering to exchange places with him.

In their statement, Pearl's parents said they never lost hope their son would be released because they didn't believe anyone could harm ``such a gentle soul ... the musician, the writer, the storyteller, the bridge builder.''

And, they said, they were suffering with the rest of the world.

``We grieve with the many who have known him in his life and we weep for a world that must reckon with his death.''

Many, including Valley residents and students and teachers at Birmingham High School - where Pearl graduated in 1981 - said they had lost an international symbol - but also a friend.

``I started out trying to feel my feelings - was I feeling sorry for Mariane for Danny's family or for myself? Ultimately, I feel sorry for the world,'' said Daniel Gill, a San Francisco attorney who met Pearl when they were in the fourth grade in the Valley and who stood at his side during his wedding in Paris.

``The world lost someone who had made a difference, and was making a difference and would have made even more of a difference,'' Gill said in a phone interview, adding that he plans to fly to Los Angeles for an anticipated memorial service.

``As a journalist, he reached even more people,'' Gill added, his voice a bit unsteady. ``Danny was great, and he would have achieved more greatness.

``I think his death had an effect on the world. That's why I'm talking. I want the world to know they lost something of incredible beauty and value.''

Mike Sherman, an accountant who lives near the Pearls and whose son, Craig, went to Stanford University with Pearl and also witnessed his marriage, said he was naturally saddened - but also enraged.

``I don't know what we can do about it,'' Sherman said, saying even an international tribunal might backfire in bringing more attention to the kind of fanaticism seemingly behind Pearl's slaying.

Sherman said he still remembers Pearl as a child - ``one of the nicest, warmest, most genuine human beings I ever came across. I'm not saying it because he's dead. It's just the way he was.''

At exactly 3 p.m. Thursday, Birmingham High Principal Doris Lasiter announced Pearl's death over the public address system and asked for a moment of silence.

``We as a faculty and students are very saddened by this,'' Lasiter said. ``We have been following this story. ... We want the family to know that this is very important to us.''

Pearl was remembered by school faculty as an extremely bright and popular young man and National Merit Scholar who liked to sing in high school musicals.

He had entered Birmingham as part of a keen group of friends who shot through Lanai Elementary and Portola Junior High to illustrious careers in journalism, finance and academic research.

``It had a huge impact because students feel a particular connection with every person who has passed through these doors,'' Assistant Principal Marsha Witten Rybin said. ``We are a journalism magnet and respect anyone who was in pursuit of a good story.''

As a tribute to Pearl, Birmingham High stripped its marquee at Balboa and Victory boulevards Thursday with a message of support for Pearl's family, courtesy of his class.

A plaque, memorial wall and a tree might also be planted in his honor, and a journalism scholarship in Pearl's name has been established.

``He got far in his life, he had everything going for him. It (his death) has put the school in a depression,'' said Hakim Hakim, 16, of Encino. ``It makes you think, like, what profession is safe and what is risky.''

32 DAYS OF FEAR, DREAD

--Jan. 23, 2002: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, 38, disappears after arranging to meet Muslim fundamentalist Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani in Karachi, Pakistan.

--Jan. 27: The Wall Street Journal and other media receive an e-mail from a group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. The e-mail contains a photo of Pearl with a gun to his head and demands the release from U.S. custody of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters and Afghanistan's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef. The group also accuses Pearl of being a spy for the CIA.

--Jan. 28: The WSJ sends an e-mail pleading for Pearl's release.

--Jan. 30: Gilani is arrested in Pakistan but claims no involvement.

--Jan. 31: Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will not negotiate. Former boxer Muhammad Ali calls for Pearl's release.

--Feb. 4: Pearl's wife, Mariane, a French free-lance journalist who is seven months pregnant, appeals for his freedom.

--Feb. 6: Pakistani police identify Ahmad Omar Saeed, an Islamic militant with a history of kidnapping foreigners, as a prime suspect in Pearl's kidnapping.

--Feb. 12: Saeed is arrested in eastern Pakistan and flown to Karachi for questioning.

--Feb. 14: Saeed confesses to the kidnapping and says Pearl is already dead. Pakistan rejects Saeed's claim.

--Feb. 21: The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan receives proof of Pearl's death. President George W. Bush decries the killing, saying such crimes ``only deepen the resolve of the United States'' to fight terrorism.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2) The sign at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, left, pays tribute to class of '81 alumnus Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose death was confirmed Thursday. Below, family spokesman Gary Foster reads a statement from Pearl's parents outside their home in Encino.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

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32 DAYS OF FEAR, DREAD (see text)