Diver DEATH in W. Va -- newspaper article
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EDWARD E. SUAREZ JR., SCUBA DIVER
SSA analyst loved the water
By Adam Sachs - Sun Staff Writer
"Edward E. Suarez Jr.'s scuba diving buddies called him "The Dive
Monster" hecasue his gusto for underwater exploration seemed insatiable.
'When there was water around, he'd be in the water," said Harvey
Storck, a diving partner from Potomac. "Even after a day of diving when we'd
all be exhausted, he'd be ready to go again."
Mr. Suarez, 48, of Columbia, dies pursuing his passion Sunday in an
accident during a cave dive in Bakerton. W. Va., near Harper's Ferry.
Dr. James Frost, West Virginia's deputy chief medical examiner, said
yesterday that Mr. Suarez apparently developed the bends, an acute condition
in which nitrogen bubbles form in the vascular system. It is caused by a
rapid ascent from deep water.
Dr. Frost said Mr. Suarez's death was an accident. However, he said
he will not determine an official cause until West Virginia officials
complete an examination of Mr. Suarez's diving equipment.
Two divers who were with Mr. Suarez Sunday and who spent hours
talking about diving and planning trips with him, said yesterday they are
still in shock.
"I still expect to get a call from Ed," said Mr. Storck, 44, who
helped recover Mr. Suarez's body at a depth of about 165 feet the day after
the accident. "I don't think it's settled in."
Family member remembered Mr. Suarez as an adventurer, but also as a
man who held master's degrees in clinical psychology and information systems
technology and as a generous soul who would stop his vehicle to remove a
turtle from the highway and take children from his church group fishing or
give them scuba diving lessons.
"Personality wise, he was a mile a minute," said Carol Suarez,43,
Mr. Suarez's sister-in-law who lives in Peoria, Ariz. "There was so much to
do and see in the world, he couldn't see why people would sit back and
not do anything."
Mr. Suarez, who lived in Owen Brown in Columbia, was a systems
analyst at the Social Security Administration. He was certified as a
scuba diver in 1967 while serving in the Air Force in Taiwan.
He had logged more than 1,000 dives, including 43 on the wreck of
the luxury liner Andrea Doria off New York and 12 on the ironclad
USS Monitor off North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Mr. Suarez went diving nearly every weekend, family members said. He
went ice diving in quarries in Pennsylvania and explored caves in northern
Florida and West Virginia. Artifacts from his explorations decorate the
Suarezes' home, said his wife, Elizabeth Suarez, 46.
He had completed more than 40 dives at the Bakerton cave, say diving
friends. Mr. Suarez seemed determined to find a way to enter the Bakerton cave
at one side of the mountain and come out on the other, Mr. Storck said.
On Sunday, Mr. Suarez dived to a depth of 303 feet, said fellow
diver John Stewart of Ellicott City. Mr. Suarez appeared to suffer a loss of
air and a problem with a propulsion device, which shot him past a diving
partner toward the cave ceiling, Mr. Stewart said.
[continues to describe memorial service to be offered...]