SAN CARLOS, Mexico (3 Aug 2004) -- A Chilean student at the University of Arizona drowned over the weekend in a scuba-diving accident near San Carlos, Mexico. Edgar Robert Fromm-Rihm, 29, died Saturday, said Norman Meader, administrative associate for the Geophysics Group in UA's Department of Geosciences. Fromm-Rihm, known here as Robert Fromm, had gone on a weekend diving trip to San Carlos, on the Gulf of California's mainland Mexican coast, with several friends, said Lara Wagner, a friend of Fromm-Rihm. He was diving with one of those friends Saturday and hit his head on a rock and drowned, Wagner said Fromm-Rihm's mother told her in a telephone call from Santiago. Fromm-Rihm was a doctoral candidate in the Geosciences department, studying earthquake seismology, Meador said. Meader said Fromm-Rihm was from Santiago and had been a student at UA for about two years. His body has been taken to Hermosillo, Son., to be shipped to his home in Chile, Meader said. "He was a great, big, friendly guy, just open to everybody," Meader said, "very bright, hard working." | | Fromm-Rihm enjoyed playing soccer with friends on Sundays and enjoyed rock climbing at various spots around southern Arizona, Meader said. Wagner, also a UA doctoral candidate in seismology, said she met Fromm-Rihm three years ago when she was doing seismology field work in Santiago. "I knew him pretty well," Wagner said, "we spent a lot of time together in the department." "He was just a wonderful person, he was incredibly helpful, I don't think he ever had a bad thing to say about anyone," Wagner recalled. "He always tried to live his life to the fullest," Wagner said. "He was a really strong guy, he was a really big guy, he was probably six-five or six-six and well over 200 pounds. He wasn't fat, he had a tremendously powerful build," Wagner said. "It makes it hard to understand how anything bad would happen to him," Wagner said, adding his friends are having a "really hard time" coming to grips with his death. SOURCE - Tucson Citizen |
