Richard “Dick” Eastland, the owner and director of Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, died while helping campers get to safety during the devastating floods that impacted the area last week. Eastland, who was the third generation from his family to manage the camp, was 74.

Torrential rains pounded Central Texas on Friday, dropping more than 10 inches of rain and causing the Guadalupe River to rise 26 feet, flooding Camp Mystic and nearby areas in Kerr County. By Saturday morning, it was confirmed that Dick Eastland, 70, had died. News of his death quickly spread across generations of Camp Mystic alumni.

For decades, Dick and Tweety Eastland presided over Camp Mystic with a kind of magisterial benevolence that alumni well past childhood still describe with awe.