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Paywall FYI.Some not-so-helpful updates from the Boston Globe.
Two divers found dead in Rockport were brothers-in-law and seasoned divers, families say - The Boston Globe
Alan O. Leao, 75, of Pepperell and Richard Brady, 78, of Hampton, N.H., were two brother-in-laws who had been diving together for over a decade, according to their families.
Paywall broken for your convenience:
Two divers found dead in Rockport were brothers-in-law and seasoned divers, families sayBy Emily Sweeney Globe Staff,Updated October 6, 2023, 6:51 p.m.Richard Brady, 78, of Hampton, N.H., (left) and Alan O. Leao, 75, of Pepperell, went out for a dive at Front Beach in Rockport on Wednesday morning. Their bodies were found later that day.Alan O. Leao Jr.
The two men whose bodies were recovered from Front Beach in Rockport on Wednesday were brothers-in-law, who were each experienced scuba divers, according to their families.Alan O. Leao, 75, of Pepperell and Richard Brady, 78, of Hampton, N.H., shared a passion for the ocean and were getting ready to go on a diving trip to Bonaire, an island off the coast of Venezuela.Brady had been an electrical engineer at MITRE Corp. before he retired and had been diving for decades, according to his wife, Barbara Brady.“He’s had over 800 dives,” she said.Richard Brady and his wife, Barbara Brady, and their two grandchildren, Kaitlyn Miller and Jake Miller, at Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vt., on Dec. 31, 2021. Mary-Alice Miller
Leao’s late wife, Patty Brady, was a sister to Richard Brady. Investigators say the two men drowned, and foul play is not suspected, authorities said Thursday.Their deaths remain under investigation by Rockport police and State Police assigned to the Essex district attorney’s office.Richard Brady grew up in Quincy and Somerville. Before he and his wife moved to New Hampshire, they lived in Tewksbury for many years.Brady was very familiar with diving spots along the North Shore, according to his daughter, Mary-Alice Miller.“He’s absolutely been diving all along the North Shore, and he knows the area very, very well,” Miller said. “I mean, he would tell me about some of the wrecks that we have along the North Shore.”Miller said her father prepared very carefully for every dive he went on, no matter what.“He always put safety first,” she said. “Everything he did was all about being methodical and safe. He would check, double check, and triple check. He had a routine. He would tell me stories about, you know, when you are preparing for a dive, it doesn’t matter if it’s a simple dive or deep dive — be quiet, put all your stuff together.“Miller said her father had received his master scuba diver and enriched air diver certifications from PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and he enjoyed visiting underwater wrecks.“It was definitely a passion of his,” said Miller. “He had a lot of certifications.”Miller said her father was also an avid skier who led a very active lifestyle.“It’s all very shocking. They were very careful,” said Miller. “This was supposed to be just a simple dive to make sure they got all their equipment together for their trip. I mean, it was a very beautiful, calm day. And they were not that far off the shore. ... They walked down the beach into the water.”“My dad and him did a lot of dive trips together,” she said. “We don’t really know what happened.”Leao was a retired Teamster and an avid soccer player who had been diving with Brady for more than a decade, according to his son, Alan O. Leao Jr.“My father is in impeccable shape ... up until last week he was still playing soccer,” he said. “He was going to be 76 next week.”Leao was originally from Brazil and came to the United States to play soccer professionally in 1968, he said.Although he came from a well-to-do Brazilian family, he worked as a truck driver and didn’t mind doing blue-collar work to raise his family. In his spare time, he would DJ for teen dances in town, and would always turn down the pay.“He was a man’s man,” he said. “He was respected. He was a good man.”Leao and Brady were great friends, he said.“Each one of them would die for the other,” he said.Alan O. Leao was pictured in the bottom left hand corner of this team photo, next to his brother Wagner. Alan O. Leao
