Michael Marling, NGCSU Artist, Has Sideline as Lifesaving Hero

MICHAEL MARLING, NGCSU ARTIST,

HAS SIDELINE AS LIFESAVING HERO

DAHLONEGA, Ga., Sept. 11, 2009 – Michael Marling de Cuellar has saved countless NGCSU students from composing substandard works of art. But on Tuesday, Aug. 4, Marling daringly saved three tourists in Puerto Rico from drowning in the Caribbean surf at the beach on Luquillo on the island’s northeastern shore.

Indiana resident Roberto Colon (pronounced like “cologne”) and his sons Bryce and Brayden undoubtedly would have drowned if Marling hadn’t traveled to the island for a week-long vacation. Marling was visiting his sister Jacque (pronounced like “Jackie”) Marling, a mental-health counselor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who spends 3 months per year at the Palmas Del Mar resort community of Humacao. Michael Marling, an associate professor of visual arts at NGCSU, set aside some time to visit Jacque, photograph the sights, and create artwork based on the photographic images. He is also an avid surfer.

After lunch, Marling drove his sister to Luquillo Beach, which is a 35-minute trip from his sister’s vacation home. They headed for the La Pared section of the beach, which is the part relatively unprotected by coral reefs from the full force of the Atlantic surf. Jacque found a comfortable spot on the beach beneath some palm trees. The La Pared section has a significant rip current, which makes paddling out into the ocean relatively effortless, Marling explained.

Marling had been in the water for an hour when he noticed, off to the side, some sort of commotion and then heard a cry for help. On the beach, Jacque was jumping up and down and waving her arms, trying to get the attention of her brother and anyone else who might be able to come to the aid of three people struggling in the surf. Marling paddled over to them. Bryce and Brayden were clutching their foam water noodles. Roberto had gone into the water without any equipment; now, he was treading water and attending to his sons, but could not conduct them back to the shore. The three of them grabbed onto Marling’s surfboard, as Marling urged them to relax and remain calm. “Thank you for saving our lives,” a grateful Colon hailed. Marling was able to keep them afloat safely, but now the four of them needed assistance if all of them could get out of the ocean.

Meanwhile, Jacque Marling was responsibly engaged in a desperate effort to summon assistance. She implored a bystander to call the emergency-service center; the dispatcher who answered the phone conceded that “nobody’s coming.” Jacque instructed another bystander to call the volunteer rescue squad; this time, the attendant who answered offered to get a boat out to the beach in about an hour’s time with a crew that would initiate an operation to recover the bodies of any drowning victims.

Apparently, the various agencies finally organized themselves sufficiently to send an ambulance to the scene. The ambulance crew emerged with a long surfboard and two shorter boards, navigated them to Marling’s location, and put the two boys on the long board. The entire group then paddled to the shore. Once safely on land, the group walked to another section of the beach, where Colon’s carefree wife Sarah was peacefully reading a book. The story that they related greatly agitated the poor woman.

After Marling’s return to Dahlonega, he received a message from Sarah Colon, thanking him for his brave action of securing her husband and sons until the rescue crew’s arrival. “You are truly my hero and I am grateful for your willingness to help,” wrote Mrs. Colon. “You saved the three most important people in my life!”

Michael Marling de Cuellar is a native of Gainesville, Fla. He studied fine arts in Florida, earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of West Florida in Pensacola and his master’s degree at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He earned an M.Ed. degree at NGCSU in 1998, and joined the university’s art faculty in 2001. Marling is active in organizing art shows at the university, and in other forms of service to the university, his colleagues, and his students. Thus far, however, he has not saved any of their lives. Nevertheless, the university has good reason to be proud of one of its accomplished professors, who went to Puerto Rico to relax and returned to Dahlonega as a lifesaving hero.