Alliance native Dean Waggenspack’s near-death experience in 2022 led him to write his second book, which he co-authored with his wife, Rosaleen.
The Ledge and The Abyss: Near Death, Rescue and the Search for Meaning was released earlier this year and details a series of unforeseen events that led Waggenspack to being trapped in a small, pitch-dark cavern surrounded by a volcanic rock wall with no way out.
As the chest-high water lapped at him, waves battered him against the volcanic rock, leaving him bloodied and gasping for breath. Above ground, his wife has seen her husband disappear underwater. After no sighting of him for ten minutes, she makes the difficult decision to leave the harsh surf and unsafe rocks to call 911 and hope for a recovery of his body.
What follows is a story of resilience in the face of long odds. Of ordinary people making the decision to step in to help when there is no hope. A miraculous set of events leads to an odds-defying, daring rescue that reminds us of the goodness of people and of our ability to work together.
After the recovery, the incident led the authors on a search for meaning, striving to understand why this event happened, and pondering what to do about it.
The Waggenspacks will appear at Rodman Public Library to discuss their book as part of the 2024 Fogle Author Series on Monday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m.
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Born and raised in Alliance, Dean graduated from Alliance High School in 1974 and from Mount Union in 1978. He finished his MBA at Duke in North Carolina and was hired in 1980 to work in Dayton for NCR as a financial analyst.
Two years later, Dean and Rose met through a recreational volleyball league.
Rose, who had moved to Mentor at age 5 and graduated from high school in 1972, was a financial analyst after completing her degree at the University of Dayton.
The couple married in 1983 and welcomed the first of their three children in 1984. In 1985, Rose decided to stay at home with the kids.
After a 30-year career with NCR, Dean taught personal finance and business-related courses at the high school level before he became a career/life coach, speaker, and blogger.
Prior to writing The Ledge and the Abyss, Dean Waggenspack released Doable Change: Practices for Making Incremental, Achievable Improvements in Your Career and Life and was a TedxDayton 2019 speaker.