Death of a Young Man

The tall, crew-cut swimmer looked as good as ever. Gliding through the practice pool at Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium one day last week, modest John Glover, 22, flashed the form that had made him one of the top freestylers in swimming history when he was at Dartmouth a year ago. In training for the Olympic tryouts in August, he was one of the nation's brightest prospects.

In midstroke, Glover splashed to a stop at the shallow end of the pool, then grabbed the gutter with both hands. "John, have you got a cramp?" asked an assistant coach. "Can I help you?" John Glover slumped back into the water, his eyes closed. Some swimmers grabbed him and lifted him to the deck, face down. He groaned two or three times, but he did not respond to artificial respiration. A Pulmotor did not help. An ambulance rushed Glover to the hospital but he was dead when it got there.

Glover had been in good shape, although not in prime competitive form. He swam in the National A.A.U. meet last April, and since then worked out three times a week. After an autopsy, the New Haven medical examiner listed the cause of death as acute pancreatitis, a severe inflammation of the enzyme-producing gland behind the stomach. But Yale University pathologists have undertaken a more detailed autopsy of their own.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.