DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania (16 June 2008) — A police officer recently hired by Douglass Township died Friday after falling ill on a scuba-diving trip 38 miles southeast of Cape May, N.J. Nicholas Papageorge, 34, of North Wales, Montgomery County, was set to start working fulltime in Douglass on Monday. Douglass Township police Chief David K. Franke said Papageorge was an officer in Norristown, Montgomery County, until about four years ago when he and his wife started a pizza restaurant and Mediterranean food catering business. But Papageorge, an Army veteran who had no children, decided recently that he wanted to be a police officer again. "His heart was in law enforcement," Franke said. "He had a way of drawing people to him. ... He had a very warm personality." It was not clear what caused Papageorge's death. The Coast Guard received a call at 10:17 a.m. from a crew member aboard the dive boat Bubble Trouble, reporting that the diver had surfaced unconscious. According to The Press of Atlantic City, Papageorge had returned to the surface while five other divers were still under water. Officials said he hadn't reached the ocean floor when he resurfaced. While some news reports indicated that Friday's dive was Papageorge's first, Franke said that wasn't the case. Friday was the first time Papageorge dove off the Bubble Trouble, he said. "This guy was an accomplished diver," Franke said. A helicopter crew hoisted Papageorge from aboard a pleasure boat and took him to Cape May County Airport in Wildwood, where an ambulance took him to a hospital. He was pronounced dead a short time later. | | The 34-year-old man who died while scuba diving off the Bubble Trouble dive boat was identified as police officer Nicholas Papageorge. The Coast Guard is investigating. Franke said he got to know Papageorge even though he had not yet started work in Douglass. He talked to friends, neighbors and former co-workers while doing a background check. More recently, Papageorge had spent time riding with Franke in his cruiser to prepare for the job he was supposed to start next week. "When somebody's riding with you, you have a lot of time to talk," Franke said. The Berks County Fraternal Order of Police lodge asked local officers to wear black stripes on their badges for a15-day mourning period. A viewing for Papageorge is set for Wednesday in the Boyd Horrox Funeral Home, Norristown. His funeral is scheduled Thursday in St. Luke's Greek Orthodox Church, Broomall, Delaware County. |
