Lawrence Edwin ANDREASEN

Larry Andreasen, who competed for the Cerritos Jr. College and the Commerce SC, won one major title in his career when he took the AAU springboard championship in 1963. His life later took an unusual turn in the 1980s. He became obsessed with diving off high bridges, attempting to break the record for the world's highest dive, and he ended up undergoing psychiatric evaluations several times. In 1988 Andreasen dove 160 feet off the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, California. He was disappointed to find this was below the world record dive of 175 feet. Over the next few years the police several times pulled him off the West Tower of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles Harbor, a dive of 385 feet. Finally, on 26 October 1990 Andreasen made that dive but died from injuries he sustained. He was found a few hours later floating in the water. The death was ruled an accident and not a suicide.