A man who drowned Sunday after his boat capsized while he was fishing with his stepson at Rampart Reservoir was a loving father and avid fisherman, his wife said Tuesday.
Charles Vassos, 45, was yanking at the boat’s anchor stuck on a rock when it dislodged, the force of which flipped the boat, Teresa Vassos recounted in a Facebook post. Her adult son swam to shore, “barely making it himself,” but her husband stayed with the boat.
Chuck, as they call him, was “struggling,” she said. His stepson and others swam to help and pulled him to shore, where two nurses performed CPR to no avail.
“My strong man, my children’s example of a man, Athena’s Daddy is gone,” Teresa wrote, referring to his other stepchildren and their 9-month-old daughter, Athena Marie, who was “every bit of him” except for having her eyes.
Charles Vassos and wife, Teresa.
Teresa recalled how excited he was for Athena to start walking so he could take her fishing.
“He was a man’s man. He knew everything about cars, he knew how to survive off the land … that’s why this is all such a shock,” she told The Gazette.
Charles Vassos.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the drowning as accidental.
The couple moved to Colorado four years ago Tuesday to begin their life together, marrying last January. They had bought their dream home and were raising two of Teresa’s four children. The other two planned to move here soon so they could all be together.
They also had two grandchildren, with a third on the way. The kids referred to Vassos as “Papou” — Greek for Grandpa — since “Chuck was 100 percent Greek and very proud of that,” Teresa said.
She said he was a “wonderful, handsome, loyal soul” who loved his family, including his twin, and lived a “full and complete” life.
“But like Chuck’s famous saying, ‘It is what it is,’” Teresa said.
A GoFundMe page was created by Teresa’s high school friend Erin Korogodsky to offset funeral expenses and help raise Athena.
“It’s a whirlwind that hits you when something tragic happens,” Korogodsky said. “This will give (Teresa) one less thing to worry about.”
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