Recent diver fatality

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Here is the story found on strib website.


Last update: April 24, 2004 at 9:11 PM
Drowned diver identified as Minneapolis man
Tim Harlow, Star Tribune
April 25, 2004DIVER0425




The man who drowned while cleaning an aeration facility 60 feet below the surface of Vadnais Lake on Friday morning had a lifelong passion for deep-water adventure and was a highly skilled diver, family members said Saturday.

In his 20 years as a scuba diver, Curtis Buttrey, 41, of Minneapolis, had taken on many challenging assignments. He worked for an East Coast diving company and had dived for the Navy. He did welding on offshore oil rigs, took photographers on aquatic outings and ran a business that harvested weeds from lakes.

He spent hundreds of hours underwater, and Friday was going to be just another day at work. Buttrey and another diver completed routine maintenance work on a St. Paul city water treatment facility about 10 a.m. The two men had about 45 minutes of air left in their tank when they were going to surface, Buttrey's sister Kari Pickering, of Brooklyn Park, said Saturday. The first diver swam to the surface, but Buttrey apparently got caught in some weeds and cables. His body was pulled from the chilly water of the lake just off Interstate Hwy. 694 and Rice St. about three hours later.

The Ramsey County medical examiner's office identified Buttrey as the victim Saturday afternoon, but autopsy results were not complete.

Buttrey's family and friends spent Saturday wondering just how such an accident could have happened to a man with a wealth of experience.

"He died doing what he loved," Pickering said. "He was very safety-conscious and not one to go off willy-nilly. He was always aware of what he was doing."

Pickering said her brother recently had bought a company that harvested leaf plants and milfoil from area lakes. He named it 35 Fathoms Inc., the depth for which he was certified to dive (210 feet).

"That was his baby. It was his pride and joy," she said.

Besides his love for the water, which began when he joined the swim team at St. Louis Park High School, Buttrey loved to hunt and had planned to go on a safari to Africa this year, Pickering said.

Pickering said her brother also loved his two dogs and liked to watch Looney Tunes cartoons. But more important, he had a "fabulous sense of humor and was a wonderful uncle" for her two children and a role model for the two children of his longtime girlfriend, who lived next door to him.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

"He was my leaning post," Pickering said. "There wasn't anybody who didn't love him."

Tim Harlow is at harlow@startribune.com