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Drowning victim remembered as ‘rock for our family.’

Posted at 11:16 PM, Aug 17, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-17 23:16:50-04

LITTLE SABLE POINT, Mich. — A man who drowned Sunday night while fishing on Lake Michigan has been identified and recovered.

The Oceana County Sheriff's Department says that Steve Bruce, 62, of Hart, was found Wednesday night with the assistance of the MSP Dive recovery team and other assets.  Family members tell Fox 17, Bruce was a loving husband, father, and brother to three sisters.

"He was the rock for our family, for his fiends," said Susie Gordon, one of Bruce's sisters.

Sunday night around 9:00 p.m. roughly two miles Northwest of Little Sable Light House, 53-year-old Brian Waslusky and 62-year-old Steven Bruce set off on what would be their last night of fishing.

According to a police, the two men were fishing on Lake Michigan off Silver Lake when they were attempting to net a fish.  That's when Waslusky apparently dropped the net and Bruce jumped in after it.   Waslusky also jumped into the water, and the two men began to struggle, a third man who was on the boat told police. Neither were wearing life jackets, the two then sank below the water's surface.

Walusky was found unconscious about 60 yards away by another boater but did not survive. Bruce was taken to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids for an autopsy.