Rochester man's heroic rescue costs him his life

Marcus Mack died saving a friend's 10-year-old son from drowning; they were on a Caribbean cruise.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: February 16, 2008 - 12:21 AM

Winter after winter, Jenny Tines and other friends would invite Marcus Mack to join them for their annual Caribbean cruise. And every time, Mack would say no, whether because of work or some other reason.

Finally, Mack said, "You know what, I'm getting tired of hearing this. I'm going this year."

And off the Rochester friends and a few others went to various warm-weather ports of call.

Tines said she knows that if Mack hadn't come along, her 10-year-old son, D'Angelo, would have drowned last week in the large waves that engulfed him and several others off a Costa Rica beach.

Mack died saving the boy.

Mack, 35, was in the Caribbean waters with young D'Angelo Tines last week, riding "slapdown waves," when sudden surges in the water overwhelmed the boy and others. Mack pulled D'Angelo to the surface and pushed him toward the shore, where he ran to his mother on the beach.

"My son came up and said, 'Mom, they're drowning! They're drowning!' " Tines said, recalling that hot day in Limon, Costa Rica, one of several stops on the Carnival Cruise itinerary. "Your gut reaction is to run in, but some lady grabs me and says, 'Don't go out there.' "

From the beach, she watched her husband, Dave, rescue a 10-year-old girl in their group, then saw the frantic effort to pull out the man who saved her son's life.

"Oh, they've got him," she recalled, watching Mack put an arm around a small buoy that was run out to him by a worker at a nearby park. "All of sudden, he slips off the buoy, and Marcus is nowhere."

Eventually, two people brought Mack to the water's edge and people in his group tried to revive him. Nothing.

Jenny Tines said her husband and another man carried him 500 feet to the ambulance. "A doctor is driving the ambulance [to the clinic three blocks away]."

Dave Tines and the doctor carried Mack out of the vehicle and into the clinic, but it was too late.

Mack was in great shape, Tines said, "built like a big house" and an excellent swimmer. D'Angelo, too, knew how to swim and regularly took advanced swimming classes.

"We knew D'Angelo would be safe because Marcus was there," Jenny Tines said. "It's just been a nightmare."

Mack "had a million-dollar smile," Tines said, recalling how his winning personality won over fellow cruise travelers by the pool at the ship's Super Bowl party.

"He loved his kids and his parents," she said. "We just don't want his [life's] story to focus on death."

After a bureaucratically difficult and expensive process, Mack's body was flown back to Minnesota Friday ahead of his funeral next week.

A memorial gathering for Mack will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at Rochester Community Baptist Church. Friends may also call one hour prior to Tuesday's 11 a.m. services at the church.

Mack, who had his own business as a party promoter and disc jockey, is survived by his girlfriend, Nicole Arnold of Rochester; children Alanah L. Mack, Marcus A. Mack and Carmelo M. Mack, all of Rochester; brothers Elliott Norwood and Rashad Norwood, and sister Lisa Norwood, all of Rochester.

The family prefers memorials to the Mack Fund, Edward Jones financial services, 4057 28th St. NW., Suite 400, Rochester, Minn. 55901.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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