Steven J. Gerstner died helping attempt to save three boys from drowning, Kenosha, Wisconsin, May 19, 1996. Brothers Corey L., 7, and Ryan J. Hamm, 9, and their friend Christopher L. Schroeder, 7, were washed into the frigid waters of Lake Michigan by a strong undertow at the mouth of the Pike River. Gerstner, 23, accountant, and his brother and a friend were nearby, fishing from the shore of the lake. When the three men saw the boys struggling in the water, they immediately ran into the lake and swam to them. Gerstner and the two other men grasped the boys and, the current pulling them farther out, struggled in attempts to return them to the bank. The boys submerged and drowned in the 45-degree water, as did Gerstner; the two other men returned to shore safely, cold and tired. The boys’ bodies were recovered from the lake that day, and Gerstner’s, almost a month later.
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