CRANFORD Matthew Loughlin was an officer and diver in the Royal Australian Navy. He played rugby and after coming to the United States, he coached youth rugby.
On Tuesday, Loughlin and his wife, Rachel Grygiel Loughlin, were in the indoor pool at the Cranford Pool and Fitness Center. While there, Matthew Loughlin was practicing Navy dives for a workout,
when he suddenly lost consciousness, his wife said.
Rachel Grygiel-Loughlin, whose 40th birthday was that day and who is pregnant with the couple's first child, said she pulled her husband from the pool and tried to resuscitate him until pool staff members and emergency workers took over.
Matthew Loughlin, 47, was taken to
Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Rahway where he was pronounced dead.
"He was just a wonderful man," Rachel Grygiel-Loughlin said. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of death, she said.
"It must have been something massive. That man was a highly trained professional who lived in the water," she said.
Matthew Loughlin's friend, Clark resident Grant Shannon - who is also from originally Australia - said Loughlin was involved in many sports in his youth and enjoyed the outdoors.
"Matt's not the kind of a guy you'd figure would die young," Shannon said. "He always tried to keep fit. It just seems like something went wrong."
"He was the kind of a guy who would give the shirt off his back," Shannon added of Loughlin, who came from Taree, New South Wales, Australia. The two men met in the United States.
Matthew Loughlin had served in the Australian Royal Navy and had been in the first Gulf War, working with others to clear mines away before ships arrived, his wife said.
She said Loughlin came to the United States about 20 years ago, and received a degree in physical therapy from New York University.
Loughlin had taken trips back to Australia, once to compete in a triathlon, Shannon recalled.
Under a photo of Loughlin from his days as a sub lieutenant driving officer in the navy were the words "Live life like there's no tomorrow."
Last weekend, Loughlin and his wife had taken two bicycle trips, covering nearly 30 miles, Rachel Grygiel-Loughlin said.
On Tuesday morning, she said, her husband gave her a dozen roses for her birthday.
Shortly before 6 p.m. that evening, the lifeguard was on duty at the Cranford pool off Centennial Avenue, but the husband and wife were the only people in the water. Rachel Grygiel Loughlin, who is expecting her first child in November, said she was talking with her husband just before he swam to the deep end of the pool to practice diving to the bottom.
"He was about 20 feet away when I saw something was wrong," she said.
Police received a call from the pool at 6:03 p.m. and officers arriving on the scene found pool staff members trying to revive Loughlin, authorities said.
Loughlin has two children from a previous marriage, daughter Elyssa, 17, and son Liam, 13, who are students in Cranford schools. The father had helped coach his son's rugby team.
On Wednesday, Hillside Avenue School principal Curt Fogas sent a statement to
parents expressing regrets.
"Our Hillside Avenue school community received some sad news Wednesday," Fogas said in the message that mentioned Loughlin passed away suddenly.
A graduate of New York University school for physical therapy, Loughlin was director of physical therapy at the Madison Medical and Sports Rehabilitation Center in Madison.
"We were shocked to hear of his passing," said Jennifer Woodard, director of human resources for the center. "He will be deeply missed. Our thoughts are with his family."
