An 18-year-old Medill sophomore was one of four camp counselors who drowned Tuesday in upstate New York when he and two other young men apparently tried to save a fourth teen who fell into a raging river.
The Northwestern student, Jonah Richman of Woodmere, N.Y., and the other counselors had been enjoying a day off from their jobs at Camp Baco in Minerva, N.Y., and were swimming at Split Rock Falls on the Boquet River when the accident occurred, according to the Associated Press.
David Altschuler, 18, of Philadelphia, slipped on rocks near the swimming hole, New York State Police said, according to Newsday. Richman, along with two close friends and Camp Baco bunkmates whom he also attended high school with in the Long Island area, jumped one by one from the boulder 50 feet above water to save each other.
Each of them — all very experienced swimmers — was sucked beneath the surface by the force of the whirlpools, Newsday reported. Someone called 911 using a cell phone, but the call broke up. An unidentified motorist made the call that alerted authorities.
Rescuers recovered Richman’s body Tuesday afternoon, several hundred yards from where he had jumped in, according to Newsday. Dangerous currents postponed the recovery of the other bodies until as late as Wednesday.
Split Rock Falls is known among locals as a popular but sometimes treacherous swimming spot, according to Newsday. Normally, it is serene and shallow enough to stand up in. But after the recent heavy rains, the swimming area was about 20 feet deep, police told the publication.
The undertow is known as “the Maytag effect,” Lt. Fred Larow, a forest ranger with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, told Newsday. The effect is a result of the current powerfully crashing into the rocks and forcing air into the water. The water’s churning then is strong enough to pull swimmers under. Larow called it “a drowning machine.”
Richman’s childhood friends who drowned were Adam Cohen, a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Jordan Satin, who attended the University of Colorado. Both were 19.
“These were fine young men, good friends, and the fact that they risked and lost their own lives to save another is totally consistent with the students our staff knew and respected,” said Charles Fowler, superintendent of Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools, in a written statement.
The fourth victim, Altschuler, was set to begin his freshman year at Wisconsin.
Richman was a strong swimmer and had been co-captain of his high school swim team with Cohen, Fowler said. The two were named to the All-County squad as seniors in 2002, and Richman still holds the school’s record in the 200-meter freestyle relay, Newsday reported.
Richman was also a former sports editor of his high school newspaper, The Spectrum, Newsday reported. He wanted to be a sportswriter.
Neither William Banis, NU’s vice president for student affairs, nor Loren Ghiglione, dean of the Medill School of Journalism, could be reached for comment Wednesday or Thursday.
But those who knew him said he was an enthusiastic student.
“He was curious about a lot of things,” said Medill Prof. Richard Roth, Richman’s academic adviser. “That kind of inquisitiveness made me think he was going to be a good journalist.”
In his first year at NU, Richman became a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where he met a lot of close friends, according to Ryan Benz, the president of Phi Delt who flew to New York along with 20 other fraternity members and 15 other students.
“With this many people coming from Northwestern, after only knowing Jonah for a year, imagine the amount of lives that he impacted during his other 18 years in Long Island, ” Benz, an Education junior, wrote n an E-mail to The Daily. “He is someone that we will never forget.”
Medill senior Marley Seaman, whose younger brother currently is at Camp Baco, met Richman briefly during a visit to the camp before Richman was a student at NU. Seaman said the two were introduced by Seaman’s mother and talked about Seaman’s experiences at the Medill.
Seaman said his brother and the other campers, as well as their families, have been shaken by Tuesday’s accident.
“The kids are all really upset,” Seaman said. “One of the counselors who drowned was apparently somebody my brother had a few years ago. They’re saying it’s one of the worst drowning accidents in the history of the Adirondacks.”
No plans yet have been made for a campus memorial service, although one likely will be held early Fall Quarter, University Chaplain Timothy Stevens said. He added that Rabbi Michael Mishkin, the executive director of Fielder Hillel Center, planned to contact Richman’s family and coordinate campus services with them.
The family could not be reached for comment.
The Medill Club of Greater New York plans to send donations in Richman’s memory to his family. To contribute, contact club president Lauren Young at [email protected].
