CHARLESTON COUNTY, SC
Jack Fleischer spent much of his 19 years of life at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center as a camper, counselor and staff member. And, after a memorial service this weekend, his ashes will be buried at the Lowcountry camp he loved so much.
Fleischer, a Columbia resident, drowned after he jumped off a dock into Bohicket Creek in Charleston County on Friday night, multiple media outlets reported. That's just off S.C. 700 near Johns Island.
The Charleston County Sheriff's Office said crews found Fleischer's body early Saturday.
Fleischer was a member at St. John's Episcopal Church in Columbia, according to a post on the church's Facebook page by Bishop Andrew Waldo, of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Fleischer's father, Scott, is an associate priest at St. John's.
"Jack was a rising sophomore at Anderson College where he was studying and discerning a call to ordained ministry," Waldo wrote.
In another post on the page, the Rev. Nicholas Beasley said Fleischer recently was presented with a scholarship at church and celebrated his birthday with family and friends.
"The people of St. John’s knew Jack’s gifts well, his sweetness of spirit, genuine discipleship, and obvious gift of love," Beasley wrote.
Fleischer was spending the summer working at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center in Charleston County.
The camp said in a Facebook post Saturday that he was at the family home of a fellow camp staff member when he died.
"He was loved by all of us here at St. Christopher, where he had been a summer camp camper, counselor, intern, and now staff member for most of his life," the statement reads.
A week before he died, Fleischer returned home to celebrate his birthday and was awarded a college scholarship at church.
"He was always very encouraging with the younger kids," family friend Tim McConnell said of Fleischer's work with the church youth group and Camp. St. Christopher.
The oldest of three kids, Fleischer was the stoic one around his siblings but still "super loving and super kind," McConnell said.
Fleischer also was a member of Columbia's chapter of F3, a faith-based men's exercise group, according to a post on the F3 Midlands website.
"Youth is a time in a man’s life where he can be captured by self-centeredness," the post reads. "Jack Fleischer was not captivated by such a life, but lived a life of service to others fueled by his faith in Jesus Christ."
Several local F3 groups are planning a "convergence," in which they will join for a workout Wednesday morning in Fleischer's memory.
And at Camp St. Christopher, the camp has changed the name of its staff regatta to "The Jack Fleischer Memorial Regatta." The regatta and a picnic will follow the interment of Fleischer's ashes at the burial ground in front of the Chapel of the Palms.
The funeral will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Sumter Street in downtown Columbia. Scott Fleischer encouraged attendees to wear red, white and blue to honor his son, whose favorite holiday was the Fourth of July.
Memorials can be made to the Jack Fleischer Youth Scholarship Fund at St. John's Episcopal Church, the goal of which is to send the church's youth to retreats and on mission trips free of charge.
This story was originally published July 10, 2018 2:40 PM.