Dave Sterenberg

David Sterenberg was from Mount Morris and served as a counselor-in-training in 1974 and on the aquatics staff in 1975 and 1976. In the summer of 1977 Dave was on his way to Colima, Colima, Mexico to be an AFS (American Field Service) exchange student. He never made it. En route to his destination, Dave was tragically found floating in the shallow end of the swimming pool at the University of Miami (the orientation site for the exchange students). This was ironic because Dave was a lifeguard and a very strong swimmer. He used to amaze the camp staff by swimming the length of the pool and back underwater without coming up for breath. It is speculated that he was doing one of these swims in a too crowded, poorly supervised pool, and that something happened while he was underwater but no one noticed anything right away.

Dan Masterson recalls,

David and I were both involved in Troop 99 in Mount Morris. We attended the same high school and he was one of my best friends. He and I both enjoyed pushing our long-distance underwater swimming. My limit was just over two lengths of the Camp Lowden pool. I do not recall Dave’s distance but I believe it was further.

He had been at Camp Lowden during the service weekend before staff week. At the end of that same week a parent of one of the Scouts from our troop called to see whether we had heard. I was the one who took the call. Dan Bestul had just returned to camp and was passing through the office as I was sitting there, in shock, wondering how to tell people what had happened. A number of us on staff served as pallbearers for his memorial service.

Steve Mackay recalls,

In all my travels, Dave Sterenberg was one of the nicest, soft-spoken human beings I have ever met. He was one of the Indians in the Order of the Arrow tap-out. I worked with him not only at Camp, but with our Scout troop and Explorer post (he was in Mount Morris while I was in Oregon). After his tragic death his parents continued their support of Scouting and Camp Lowden.

Bruce True recalls,

I was David’s junior high math teacher and I knew him and his family well. He was a great human being and I have nothing but good things to say about him. He was an excellent student and would have gone far if not for the terrible tragedy that happened to him.

The Camp Lowden showerhouse was dedicated to him. The plaque reads,

In memory of David Alan Sterenberg, Camp Lowden Aquatics Staff.
Let man blaze the path of leadership and light it brightly so that a boy might also become a man.