Raymond Zack

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

And now there is the tragedy of Raymond Zack.

A one-time Ohio high school basketball star who held a bachelor's degree in business, Zack had suffered from severe depression that made him unable to work, his family said. On Memorial Day, he was unusually despondent.

After pacing on Robert Crown Memorial State Beach, he waded fully clothed into the water about 150 yards from shore to either pray or kill himself, said his closest friend, 84-year-year-old Dolores Berry. She took Zack under her wing two decades ago - resonating with the sunny kindness he displayed when not in a depressive state - and considers him a stepson.

"I told him, 'Please don't do this,' but he was determined to go into the water," said Berry, who had rushed to the beach after hearing he'd gone there depressed. She is too infirm to swim, so she had a passer-by call 911.

"The police and fire came, they all stood around, and nobody did anything," she said, struggling to hold back tears. "People just don't care anymore. I thought more of this town, these people."

As he stood neck deep in the 54-degree water, slowly dying, a kite boarder paddled out to him. He told witnesses Zack told him he wanted to pray. After more than an hour, a young woman swam out and retrieved his motionless body.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/12/MNEE1JS9O9.DTL#ixzz1PNbGUG2g