My wife told me about this today, having caught a bit of the report on
the radio.

http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/BreakingNews/2007/02/19/3645390.html

The story:

A respected hi-tech business leader died Sunday in an ice diving
accident on the St. Lawrence River near Rockport.

Dr. Doug Smeaton was pulled from the frigid waters of the 1000
Islands, east of Gananoque, shortly after 1 p.m. today by OPP divers.

Smeaton, the president and CEO OF Semiconductor Insights, became
trapped under the ice shortly after noon Sunday while exploring a
shipwreck with another Kanata man. The pair were diving about 27
metres below the ice surface and 240 metres from the shore, assisted
by a guideline.

Smeaton ran into trouble with his air flow regulator when he was
returning to shore. The other diver tried to help him with his own
regulator but Smeaton was unconscious and unable to take air, said OPP
Const. Dana Mellon.

A group of nearby divers from New Jersey located Smeaton under the ice
but were not able to pull him to surface.

Smeaton, who served as a VP AT MItel Semiconductor before taking the
helm at the Mosaid-spinoff Semiconductor Insights in 1992, was a
mentor to many, said Jenn Markey, VP of marketing at Semiconductor
Insights.

"He was very generous with his time. He believed very strongly in
people. He was almost a father figure, especially at our office in
Kanata," Markey said.

"He was socially conscious and aware that a company was a lot more
than numbers, it was the people that made them up," added Markey,
recalling how after one profitable year, Smeaton paid for a weekend in
Montebello for 140 employees and their spouses.

Markey said Smeaton, who is married and has three grown sons, was an
experienced diver who practiced his sport around the world, including
Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Sea of Japan.

Managers at Semiconductor Insights's Kanata office gathered the
company's 140 staffers in the cafeteria yesterday morning to relay the
news of Smeaton's death.

---
Mike from Ottawa