MOURNERS EULOGIZE CAPPS; POLITICAL PASSION, PIETY REMEMBERED.

Byline: Deborah Hastings Associated Press 

Rep. Walter Capps was remembered Monday as a man of high decency and gentle spirit by more than 600 mourners who overflowed the Old Mission sanctuary.

The 63-year-old Democrat, narrowly elected in November 1996, died Oct. 28 of an apparent heart attack after collapsing at Dulles International Airport.

President Clinton, in a letter read by former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, described Capps as ``a special man. A gentle spirit with a lion's heart.''

To longtime friend Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., Capps was a paradox. ``He learned to keep his troubles to himself. Yet he invited us to tell our troubles to him.

``He saw spirit where others saw physical characteristics,'' Kerrey said.

But to those who knew Capps as a religious studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was a man who also fought for the little guy.

He was their version of ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.''

Maureen Mina, 38, was his student nearly 20 years ago.

``He always taught that the little guy has a lot of power and it is imperative that he know it,'' Mina said.

In 30 years of teaching, 14 books and countless speeches, Capps always encouraged civic involvement and religious spirit, Mina said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson praised Capps as ``a tall timber in the forest of humanity. He lived in dignity. He died in service.''

Capps' election was hard won. In May 1996, he was nearly killed in a car crash with a drunk driver. He said at the time that it changed his life. It also kept him from campaigning for most of the summer.

Meanwhile, Republican incumbent Andrea Seastrand used such tactics as a television ad that used Capps' opposition to the death penalty to tie him to Richard Allen Davis, the convicted murderer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

Mourners included Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, failed GOP U.S. Senate candidate Michael Huffington and former state Sen. Gary Hart, Santa Barbara City Council members and more than 200 others who couldn't fit into Mission Santa Barbara and sat outside listening to loudspeakers.

Capps' three grown children, choking back tears, spoke of his dedication to knowledge, of his sure and understated wisdom, and of his ability to appear bigger than life.

``I truly believed my father was too good to be true,'' said daughter Laura.

The oldest of four brothers, Capps was raised in Omaha. He graduated from Portland State University in Oregon and received a master's and doctorate degree from Yale Divinity School.

Teaching was his first calling and he recently said he planned to return to it after serving in Congress.

He'd already begun writing a new curriculum and had selected a title: ``Voices of a Stranger, A Study On the Homeless.''

``He was in Congress for only a short time,'' Panetta said. ``But he leaves a long-lasting legacy.''

Capps is survived by Lois, his wife of 37 years, children, Lisa, Todd and Laura, and one grandchild.

Burial was private.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO Lois Capps, center, follows the casket carrying her husband, R ep. Walter Capps, D-Santa Barbara, at a funeral Monday.

Associated Press