Dad on family rafting trip drowns after falling into Colorado river, officials say

A father on a commercial rafting trip with family died after falling into a Colorado river, officials said.

Cornelis Booysen, 55 of Juliet, Tennessee, was on a rafting trip in Glenwood Canyon with family on July 7 when he and others aboard fell into the water, the Garfield County Coroner’s Office said in a July 13 news release.

The group helped bring Booysen, who was wearing a flotation device and helmet, to shore, the office said. They performed CPR on him until first responders arrived.

Booysen, however, could not be revived and was pronounced dead on scene, officials said.

His death, which was ruled accidental, is being investigated as a drowning, the office said.

In his obituary, Booysen was remembered as a “man among men, lost far too soon.”

“He was (a) man of passion and compassion, strength and tenderness; from whom love flowed constantly and with ease,” his obituary reads.

Booysen was born in South Africa and immigrated to the United States with his family in 2002, “settling in the Tampa Bay area,” his obituary says. He later wrote an autobiographical book, “The Sphere,” about his immigrant experience.

He moved to Nolensville, Tennessee in 2013 after accepting a director position at Ingram Publishing, according to his obituary. He went on to found his own company, Augmented Enterprises, in 2017.

Two years later, he met his “soul mate,” Charity Ingersoll, his obituary says.

“My heart, my peace, my joy, my rock was lost to us tragically on Friday,” Ingersoll wrote on Facebook.

Booysen is survived by Ingersoll, his three children and “three bonus children,” according to his obituary.

Glenwood Springs is about 170 miles southwest of Denver.

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