Ohio Professor Dies After Falling 150 Feet Off Alaska Mountain While Hiking

A Miami university finance professor died Saturday after he tumbled down from a mountain while hiking in Alaska.

David Shrider, 52, of Oxford, Ohio, was hiking on Donoho Peak in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve when he lost his footing and fell 150 feet below, Carrie Wittmer, a spokesperson with the National Park Service, told the Anchorage Daily News.

Shrider was on a backpacking trip with his family, including his son who called 911 after a group member found him dead, the outlet reported. Alaska state troopers in Glennallen were contacted about his death just after 6:30 p.m. ET, authorities said in an online report.

Shrider’s body was recovered Saturday afternoon at around 1:30 p.m. ET by two Wrangell St. Elias National Park search and rescue teams, as well as an Alaska State Trooper who used the park service’s fire pro-helicopter, Wittmer told Anchorage Daily News.

His body was taken to the McCarthy airport and will be transported to the state medical examiner’s office where an autopsy will be performed to determine his official cause of death, Wittmer told the publication.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Shrider fell.

The University of Miami’s Farmer School of Business mourned his death in a Facebook post, according to which Shrider graduated from the school in 1992 before joining as teaching staff in the Department of finance in 2004.

Shrider was also the director of Global Trade Programs since 2017. "David was greatly appreciated as a valued friend and colleague of the Farmer School, the University of Miami and the Oxford community in general," the university said in the Facebook post. "His positive impact and connection with his students was immeasurable and earned him an Outstanding Professor by the University of Miami Associate Student Government in 2020."

In October 2020, a 25-year-old man died after falling off of a cliff at the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. The man fell 100 feet while taking photos and slid 150 feet further, resulting in his death. The man had suffered severe head trauma in the fall.