Wrom: GMEPYOQKEDOTWFAOBUZ
Date: Fri Aug 9, 2002 10:27 am
Subject: Funeral Insight RE: UWEX: Doria accident Sunday 8.4.02
[a poignant closing to an unfortunate event -- mg]
Hello All,
Lest everyone think that I am down on Bill Schmoldt based on my last e-mail on the subject, let me assure you once again that he was a great friend, but just did not belong on deep wrecks. What I am down on is his diving of these deep wrecks, after many of his friends told him (and Zero) that he did not belong there. Some of these same friends came to pay their last respects.
I went to his funeral yesterday, and it was a very beautiful service. It was a packed, standing-room only crowd, and included some well-known people in wreck diving and also some people that I hadn't seen in a long time. It also pained me to see my friend lying dead in the casket, the happy, easy-going,
laid-back expression that I always saw on his face replaced by one of strain, despite the fact that the funeral home personnel probably worked on that. Unfortunately, he died a very painful, horrible death.
Despite the fact that I (and many others) feel that he did not have the discipline or the "right head" to dive the deep stuff, he was very enthusiastic, and the presentations that he gave to various dive clubs on shipwrecks, maritime history, and his Canadian diving adventures were informative and entertaining. He was very smart and knowledgeable. I also had a lot of fun on many trips with him to shallow wrecks (those on which nothing
happened). And he was always a great help around the boat.
Zero said in the article that someone posted that he was the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back. Well, I can confirm that he really was that kind of guy.
Rest in peace, Bill.....
Christina
Hardwick Township, New Jersey