Downers Grove man dies saving friend from drowning

Friends are family are mourning a 52-year-old Downers Grove man who drowned after saving a friend who fell into Chicago's Monroe Harbor, authorities said.

Michael Vergauwen was with a friend - who Chicago police did not identify - on a 32-foot boat parked at a mooring about 10:25 a.m. Sunday when the friend's suitcase fell in the water.

The friend jumped in after it, but began to struggle in the water just yards from the harbor wall at the Columbia Yacht Club.

Vergauwen jumped in and saved his friend, but then struggled himself and went under the surface, police said.

Witnesses called for help. Divers and helicopters from the Chicago Fire Department, police and Coast Guard responded.

Divers found Vergauwen about 20 minutes later at the bottom of the harbor. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where authorities said he was pronounced dead shortly after 11 a.m.

Neither man was wearing a life vest.

Visitation for Vergauwen is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Adams, Winterfield and Sullivan Funeral Home at 4343 Main St., Downers Grove. The funeral is private, funeral home officials said.

Vergauwen graduated from Maywood's Proviso East High School in 1974 where former classmates said he was a very affectionate and caring person.

"He was the audio/visual nerdy guy in high school," said Nicki Dubin Weigel, who was Vergauwen's freshman year homecoming date. "But he must have liked that because he did all right with it."

Vergauwen's high school foray into A/V equipment later would translate into a career in the industry, eventually leading him to the chief operating officer's post at AVI Systems in Bensenville. The company operates 10 offices throughout the country with a staff of more than 250 employees, according to its Web site. Vergauwen got his start in 1982 at a firm in Milwaukee that merged with AVI Systems in 1999.

Another classmate, Pat Gerace, last spoke with Vergauwen about three years ago when they attended a benefit for the family of a former classmate killed in an industrial accident.

"There were so many people there talking about how he had found their kids a job and you would have never known about it talking to him," she said. "That's how he was. He never made a big deal out of himself. He was such a decent, decent man."