Our classmate John Brett Lewis was born 17 July 1955. After High School he migrated to Paris, Tennessee. I have no details on his post graduation life in terms of family, jobs or higher education as he passed on prior to the digital internet age, but I did discover his fate by chance while trying to research his story. John at some point took up Scuba Diving and enjoyed it to the point where he was taking on ever greater challenges. Unfortunately for him, John perished (drowned) attempting a fairly complex deep dive in northern Florida in a notorious large water filled sinkhole known as the "Blue Sink" on Sunday, 29 November, 1992. He was just 37 years old at the time. This location has since been closed to divers and John was not the only diver to lose his life there over the years. It is not clear if John suffered an equipment failure or was victim of "nitrogen narcossis" wherein the concentration of accumulated nitrogen in the blood at depth puts you in a euphoric state impairing your judgement. In any case, his diving instructor noticed he was in difficulty while ascending from below 200 feet of depth and brought him up, but rescue services could not revive him. Below is the newpaper clipping I found. The date of the incident matches the date indicated on John's death certificate which was filed in Marion county, Florida. This can only be our John Lewis.
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Ocala Star-Banner (FL) - December 1, 1992
Diver dies in Blue Sink
A Tennessee man died underwater Sunday while scuba diving in Blue Sink.
John Lewis, 37, Paris, Tenn., was diving with diving instructor Hal Watts Sunday afternoon (29 November) and were beginning to surface from 230 feet when the mishap occurred, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Department.
Watts told investigators that Lewis was fine when the two were at 215 feet. But when they came up to 200 feet, Watts saw Lewis' regulator had fallen out of his mouth and he could not get Lewis to respond.
Watts, (57), Orlando, brought Lewis (37) to the surface.
Lewis was pronounced dead at Munroe Regional Medical Center.
=====
If anyone can provide additional details about John's life and adventures prior to his fatal accident, please do.
John & I spent a lot of time together in high school and beyond. We attended South Alabama in Mobile, along with classmates Steve Canerossi and Kathy Schwarz (RIP). He was a very outdoors guy, and Eagle Scout, Order or the Arrow, but he also had a great bass voice and sang in GHS & USA choruses. He married our classmate Karen Johnston (Dunning), and she was widowed when he died in the scuba accident.
John & I went on motorcycle touring/camping trips together, and he did a solo “tour of the Midwest” via motorcycle, pulling a trailer that he had built himself. He was a risk taker, and a prime example (at least for me) was his tale of riding his motorcycle into a sweeping RH turn at significant speed, and found himself drifting toward the center line due to high speed. As he approached the apex of the turn, he spotted a motorhome lumbering through the turn in the opposite direction. He drifted closer to the LHS of his lane, and when he passed the motorhome, he told me he could have reached out and touched the “big W” (Winnebago) letter on the side of the RV-they were that close.
Another motorcycle story I recall was that he signed up for a motorcycle “superbike” weekend, where advanced riders would get classroom instruction, then go out to a racetrack, and ride race prepped motorcycles-with no speedometers. In preparation for the class, he’d bought new riding gloves with steel studs on the palms, known as “sliding gloves”. John was getting the feel of the superbike, increasing his lap speed again and again when something got out of hand, the bike wiggled and he lost it. He told of sliding along the track on his belly and palms, sparks flying from the studs. He was not hurt, but the new gloves and riding leathers were toast.
Karen can tell many more stories, but I recall that their honeymoon was a trekking adventure in Nepal.
John and I worked at the same business, Associated Precision Products, in high school and beyond, and I think I got him the job. The business was a small manufacturing outfit, and made “small parts for missiles” as I like to say.
John and I rekindled our high school friendship after the ten year class reunion. We were married in 1986 and lived that double income high adventure lifestyle for seven years before he perished I was diving at the same location with him and was finishing my dive log when I heard "call 911". There were only two in the water at that time and I knew right away it was not John's voice calling. He was with an instructor and owner of the spring in Ocala FL. The instructor was the world's record holder for deep diving on air named Hal Wats. It was known to be a very dangerous dive. Hal threatened to lie and tell his life insurance company that it was not an accident, but a heart attack, if I publically published any info about the event. A "heart attack" death would have halved my benefits. I have a very detailed journal of that day.
John passed out from the nitrogen at 240 feet on air. He suffered an air embolism as Hal quickly brought him to the surface. He never regained consciousness.
There is so much to the story and so much I could tell about my precious John. He was sn amazing man and a great husband. We had been working together at Plumley Co in Paris TN An automotive supplier of under the hood rubber products I managed the R&D lab and he managed engineering. We worked snd traveled together. We had done every adventure sport that was safe and were looking for more. We were both Master scuba divers. This was thanksgiving week end. We had not planned to do that last dive. We were at Disney World til late the night before and were exhausted and ate only pb&j for breakfast. I had actually made an appeal to John three months earlier that our lives had gotten out of balance with so much extreme adventure sporting. We were running around having fun every weekend and not doing anything of eternal value, or that benefited others. He reassured me of his faith in Jesus and said he felt we were doing ok because, in his opinion, religion was faith not works. At that instant, God put a blanket of peace over my soul and a message in my heart. Karen, just love and enjoy him. So, upon his death, I continued to have peace that passes understanding.
I regret that we had put off having children His sister also passed away childless a few years later and thus his parents were bereft. I remarried and had four daughters and remained very close to John's parents until they too passed.
J. D. Webster
Our classmate John Brett Lewis was born 17 July 1955. After High School he migrated to Paris, Tennessee. I have no details on his post graduation life in terms of family, jobs or higher education as he passed on prior to the digital internet age, but I did discover his fate by chance while trying to research his story. John at some point took up Scuba Diving and enjoyed it to the point where he was taking on ever greater challenges. Unfortunately for him, John perished (drowned) attempting a fairly complex deep dive in northern Florida in a notorious large water filled sinkhole known as the "Blue Sink" on Sunday, 29 November, 1992. He was just 37 years old at the time. This location has since been closed to divers and John was not the only diver to lose his life there over the years. It is not clear if John suffered an equipment failure or was victim of "nitrogen narcossis" wherein the concentration of accumulated nitrogen in the blood at depth puts you in a euphoric state impairing your judgement. In any case, his diving instructor noticed he was in difficulty while ascending from below 200 feet of depth and brought him up, but rescue services could not revive him. Below is the newpaper clipping I found. The date of the incident matches the date indicated on John's death certificate which was filed in Marion county, Florida. This can only be our John Lewis.
=====
Ocala Star-Banner (FL) - December 1, 1992
Diver dies in Blue Sink
A Tennessee man died underwater Sunday while scuba diving in Blue Sink.
John Lewis, 37, Paris, Tenn., was diving with diving instructor Hal Watts Sunday afternoon (29 November) and were beginning to surface from 230 feet when the mishap occurred, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Department.
Watts told investigators that Lewis was fine when the two were at 215 feet. But when they came up to 200 feet, Watts saw Lewis' regulator had fallen out of his mouth and he could not get Lewis to respond.
Watts, (57), Orlando, brought Lewis (37) to the surface.
Lewis was pronounced dead at Munroe Regional Medical Center.
=====
If anyone can provide additional details about John's life and adventures prior to his fatal accident, please do.
George Hamilton
John & I spent a lot of time together in high school and beyond. We attended South Alabama in Mobile, along with classmates Steve Canerossi and Kathy Schwarz (RIP). He was a very outdoors guy, and Eagle Scout, Order or the Arrow, but he also had a great bass voice and sang in GHS & USA choruses. He married our classmate Karen Johnston (Dunning), and she was widowed when he died in the scuba accident.
John & I went on motorcycle touring/camping trips together, and he did a solo “tour of the Midwest” via motorcycle, pulling a trailer that he had built himself. He was a risk taker, and a prime example (at least for me) was his tale of riding his motorcycle into a sweeping RH turn at significant speed, and found himself drifting toward the center line due to high speed. As he approached the apex of the turn, he spotted a motorhome lumbering through the turn in the opposite direction. He drifted closer to the LHS of his lane, and when he passed the motorhome, he told me he could have reached out and touched the “big W” (Winnebago) letter on the side of the RV-they were that close.
Another motorcycle story I recall was that he signed up for a motorcycle “superbike” weekend, where advanced riders would get classroom instruction, then go out to a racetrack, and ride race prepped motorcycles-with no speedometers. In preparation for the class, he’d bought new riding gloves with steel studs on the palms, known as “sliding gloves”. John was getting the feel of the superbike, increasing his lap speed again and again when something got out of hand, the bike wiggled and he lost it. He told of sliding along the track on his belly and palms, sparks flying from the studs. He was not hurt, but the new gloves and riding leathers were toast.
Karen can tell many more stories, but I recall that their honeymoon was a trekking adventure in Nepal.
John and I worked at the same business, Associated Precision Products, in high school and beyond, and I think I got him the job. The business was a small manufacturing outfit, and made “small parts for missiles” as I like to say.
Karen Johnston (Lewis Dunning)
John and I rekindled our high school friendship after the ten year class reunion. We were married in 1986 and lived that double income high adventure lifestyle for seven years before he perished I was diving at the same location with him and was finishing my dive log when I heard "call 911". There were only two in the water at that time and I knew right away it was not John's voice calling. He was with an instructor and owner of the spring in Ocala FL. The instructor was the world's record holder for deep diving on air named Hal Wats. It was known to be a very dangerous dive. Hal threatened to lie and tell his life insurance company that it was not an accident, but a heart attack, if I publically published any info about the event. A "heart attack" death would have halved my benefits. I have a very detailed journal of that day.
John passed out from the nitrogen at 240 feet on air. He suffered an air embolism as Hal quickly brought him to the surface. He never regained consciousness.
There is so much to the story and so much I could tell about my precious John. He was sn amazing man and a great husband. We had been working together at Plumley Co in Paris TN An automotive supplier of under the hood rubber products I managed the R&D lab and he managed engineering. We worked snd traveled together. We had done every adventure sport that was safe and were looking for more. We were both Master scuba divers. This was thanksgiving week end. We had not planned to do that last dive. We were at Disney World til late the night before and were exhausted and ate only pb&j for breakfast. I had actually made an appeal to John three months earlier that our lives had gotten out of balance with so much extreme adventure sporting. We were running around having fun every weekend and not doing anything of eternal value, or that benefited others. He reassured me of his faith in Jesus and said he felt we were doing ok because, in his opinion, religion was faith not works. At that instant, God put a blanket of peace over my soul and a message in my heart. Karen, just love and enjoy him. So, upon his death, I continued to have peace that passes understanding.
I regret that we had put off having children His sister also passed away childless a few years later and thus his parents were bereft. I remarried and had four daughters and remained very close to John's parents until they too passed.
In loving memory,
Karen Johnston Lewis Dunning
Find me at randyandkaren dunning on facebook
Karen Johnston (Lewis Dunning)
Lisa Pittman (Pittman)
Blessings and condolences, Karen. So sorry to lose him so young.