Man dies on Kauai
trying to save grandkidsPart-time isle resident Victor
Schaub's two grandchildren
had gotten caught in a
strong ocean current
LIHUE >> A former California mayor and part-time Kauai resident died Monday while attempting to save his two grandchildren from a powerful current in Anahola Bay on Kauai's east shore.
COURTESY OF THE TIMES-STANDARD
Victor Schaub loved Kauai, said his widow, Sondra.
Victor Schaub, 61, and his wife, Sondra, were in shallow water about 3:30 p.m. when they saw their two grandchildren, 13-year-old Sadie and 11-year-old Eliot Claasen, struggling about 40 yards offshore and went to help. Sondra Schaub and the two children reached shore safely, but Victor Schaub was nowhere to be found.
"There was no problem, the water was knee-high, the kids were boogie-boarding," Sondra said yesterday. "In seconds, the ocean changed and the kids were in trouble.
"We ran in to get them, but I couldn't make it past the waves. ... After about five minutes, the kids and I struggled to shore, and we turned around expecting to see Victor behind us, but Victor wasn't there.
"Two more minutes went by, and his body surfaced, ... brought to shore by the same current that brought us to shore," she said.
A bystander who went to rescue him found Victor Schaub floating face-down in the water. He dragged Schaub to shore and, along with police officers who had arrived at the scene, attempted to resuscitate him.
Firefighters and paramedics arrived shortly afterward but also were unable to revive him.
"Two young men started CPR, ... then the ambulance crews came and worked on him for a long time," Sondra said. "Victor could just not be revived.
"I think and the doctor thinks that Victor had a heart attack. He wasn't in the water long enough to drown," she said.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. His death is the fourth water-related fatality this year on Kauai.
"He died on the beach that he loved," Schaub's longtime friend John Graves told the Times-Standard newspaper in Eureka, Calif. "There's a certain completeness and appropriateness to that."
Schaub served as mayor of Arcata -- a city of about 16,000 six miles north of Eureka in Northern California -- from 1990 to 1995. Flags at Arcata City Hall were flying at half staff yesterday.
"He was a local political figure," his wife said. "He did a lot of good for a lot of people.
"He's what I called a person who's dedicated his life to service ... all the way to the end."
Arcata City Councilwoman Connie Stewart called Schaub her mentor and credited him for getting her actively involved in politics.
"He was an inspiration to all of us," Stewart told the Times-Standard. "He was just an extremely giving person."
The Schaubs own two vacation rentals on Kauai and have been living there for six months out of the year. This most recent visit was to spend time with their grandchildren during their spring break.
The Schaubs used to live on Kauai during the late '60s before moving back to California in 1974. Sondra said she and her husband considered themselves part-time residents and planned to retire on Kauai in the next three to five years.
"Victor has loved Kauai and respected this community and this island since he first stepped foot on it in 1968," she said.
The Schaub family plans to have a small service on Kauai among family and friends, and a much larger memorial service in California.
"The ocean changed in a heartbeat," Sondra said of the water that day at Anahola Bay. "It is treacherous. I didn't think it was, but it is.
"Victor was here and healthy one minute, and then he was gone," she said.
In memory of her husband to whom she would have been married for 41 years in June, Sondra, 60, asked that people never take what they have for granted.
"Stay in the moment and love one another all the time because you never know," she said. "There's no guarantees. ... It can all change in a heartbeat."
