A grandfather died after his canoe tipped over in eastern Hampden County Monday. Police say Charles Curving of Holland fought to stay afloat, but eventually he went under in the Hamilton Reservoir. Divers found him about two hours later.

The solo trip for the 63-year-old grandfather turned deadly when the . boat he was paddling tipped over, exposing him to the 40 degree water for more than two hours.

The canoe Curving used was pulled ashore late Monday afternoon with safety jackets inside, but Curving wasn't. "I guess we heard voices at first. It didn't seem like distress voices, it sounded like people putting a boat in or a dock and having a little difficulty," says Devra Olewnik. She watched the rescue unfold from her porch.

Later she found, those were calls for help. "We noticed, more activity and more boats coming in a realized something had happened," Olewnik says. "They were yelling from the water for help. There were two voices, yelling and all of a sudden there was just one," says Napoleon Surprenant, another Holland resident.

Later we found out Curving's teenage grandson jumped into the 40 degree water, trying to rescue his grandfather himself. "Because of the temperature of the water, he wasn't able to get to him," says Holland Police Chief Kevin Gleason.

Curving was still out there somewhere, alone, shivering, and waiting to be found. Police got there just before 3, but had a hard time finding him.
"He was submerged from the time I got there until they recovered him," Gleason says.

That was two hours later with the help from Spencer, North Brookfield, Sturbridge and. Six dive crews in all. Once rescue crews found him, they rushed him to Harrington Memorial in Southbridge, but it was too late.

Police say Curving's asthma condition could have have played a factor in his death. Folks we spoke to say this was the first deadly accident in at the reservoir in two decades.