Warren Edwin Stoffer, 55, radio station manager, died assisting in an attempt to save Norman E. Fehr, 55, schoolteacher and two others from drowning, Waldport, Oregon, September 21, 1968. In Alsea Bay a motorboat containing Fehr, Mark J. Bizjak, and Donald A. Arndt was capsized by an erratic breaker when they passed near an area of heavy surf at the mouth of the bay. The strong current swept the overturned craft, with the three men clinging to it, into the turbulent area, which lay between the bay and the Pacific Ocean. Stoffer and Ormond A. Steele, in another motorboat in the bay, noted the situation and decided to try to aid the men. Steele piloted his boat to within 15 feet of the turbulent area and held it there with some difficulty because of the current. Stoffer threw a rope toward the men, who were about 30 feet away. Fehr caught the rope; and Stoffer pulled him out of the surf and to the side of Steele’s boat, which the current had moved nearer the turbulence. As Stoffer drew Fehr aboard, the end of the rope fell into the water and became fouled in the boat’s propeller. With the engine disabled, the craft was swept into the turbulent area and capsized. Steele, Fehr, and Stoffer were submerged briefly, the latter surfacing farthest from the boat. An intervening breaker then obscured Stoffer from the other men, and he was not seen again. Steele aided Fehr in holding to the boat. It was carried through the turbulent area and into the ocean, as was the other craft with Bizjak and Arndt clinging to it. A Coast Guard boat arrived and took the four men to shore. The body of Stoffer was recovered later.
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