Man dies saving son caught in ocean rip current

A Delaware man died off the coast of Virginia last weekend saving the life of his teenage son, who was caught in a dangerous ocean rip current.

Michael J. Manley, 42, and his family were attending a wedding and went to the beach Sunday in Virginia.

Manley never went into the ocean deeper than his ankles for a simple reason: Sharks.

“Oh, he loved ‘Shark Week,’ ” said Amy Jo Fosdick, his girlfriend of more than 10 years. But he always told their 3-year-old son Michael Jr., “Baby Michael, don’t go into the ocean because that’s where the sharks live.”

However, when he saw their older son, 17-year-old Andrew Short, in trouble in the water, Fosdick said, Manley ran into the ocean without any hesitation.

“I’m sad and upset about him dying,” said his brother John on Wednesday night, “but I’m so proud of what he did.”

His brother’s best friend, Pete Hinton, also praised his heroism.

“Michael performed the ultimate sacrifice by saving his son,” Hinton said. “I think those of us who knew Michael could not be more proud to say he was our family or friend.”

The weekend had been one of miserable weather, Fosdick said, but the sky cleared on Sunday so they went to the beach.

Manley arrived at the beach soon after, she said, and her 17-year-old son Andrew Short went out into the water. He went in at the same time as an older man, she said.

A little while later, she said, she suddenly saw her son struggling in the water, frantically waving his hands. The older man also had trouble, but made it to shore, she said.

She started yelling to him and yelling at a woman nearby to call 911.

She walked out into the water, fully clothed, yelling to him, “C’mon, Andrew, you can do it, keep swimming!”

Fosdick said Manley didn’t say a word before running into the water. “I was so focused on Andrew, I didn’t see him at first,” she said.

She was still yelling to the boy when he started to drift toward shore and she saw Manley was drifting in the other direction toward the open ocean.

“I was screaming, ‘Michael! Michael!’ at the top of my lungs, but I don’t know if he heard me,” she said.

Three men arrived from a fire company down the street and ran into the ocean, swam to Manley and grabbed him, she said.

But the current was too strong and they couldn’t hold him, she said, and “they had to let him go.” He drifted out farther and farther, then out of sight.

Once her son made it to shore, she said, he told her that Manley swam to his side, seemed very calm and told him what to do.

He said he should relax, not fight the water, but lie on his back and drift with it, just wait until he reached a calm point where he could swim ashore, she said.

That’s what Andrew did, she said, and it saved his life.

But hours of searching failed to find Manley, she said.

“Then some time later,” she added, “he just came in with the tide.... It was horrible.”

Manley “lived for his family,” his girlfriend said. “He would have done anything for me, he loved baby Michael and he treated Andrew like he was his own son.”

At 230 pounds, she said, he was a big guy, but his heart was equally big. In his generosity, helpfulness and focus on others, she said, “he was very godlike.... He made me a better person.”

“Most heroes wear capes,” she added, “but ours wore a cap.”

A lifelong resident of Wilmington, Delaware, where he was born, Manley attended St. Catherine of Sienna School and graduated in 1992 from McKean High School.

In addition to his girlfriend and their boys, his sister Linda Ubil and brother John, Manley is survived by his sisters and brothers-in-law Karen and Michael Selak of Wilmington and Janet and Charles Glackin of Wilmington; his sister Patricia Manley of Dover; sister-in-law Mary Ellen Manley of Bear, brother-in-law John Ubil, his girlfriend’s mother Judie Riley of Wilmington and her brother Rodney Fosdick of Atlanta and many nieces and nephews.