An event memorializing a former Palm Beach resident who died in a spearfishing accident this past Mother’s Day will be held Sunday in Jupiter.
A Memorial Paddle Out for Virgil M. Price III will celebrate the life of the well-known free diver who went missing May 12 while exploring a World War II shipwreck off the coast of Jensen Beach .
U.S. Coast Guard officials launched a search for the West Palm Beach resident but suspended it the following evening. The agency reported a search of more than 1,415 miles and 36 hours, according to TCPalm.com . His body has not been recovered.
Price, a graduate of the Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, was an experienced freediver and instructor with Florida Freedivers, a sporting goods store in North Palm Beach, his family said. From an early age he was drawn to music, wildlife and the ocean, and he also played numerous instruments including piano, bass guitar, and mandolin, his family said.
Kate Cerasaro, Price’s mother, said her son was an avid outdoorsman and “Renaissance guy” who went alligator hunting, collected World War II and Civil War artifacts, played in a band, made homemade alligator stew, and taught surfing, diving and spearfishing.