Spencer M. Korwin, a former Team USA triathlete and wellness entrepreneur, drowned during a morning swim on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, while on a family vacation on Shelter Island, N.Y. He was 38. Relatives and friends gathered in Manhattan on Sunday, September 6, for his funeral.
The father of two young daughters went into the water about 8 a.m. that Wednesday off the dock at the hotel where he and his relatives were lodging, according to Shelter Island Police Det. Sgt. Jack Thilberg. Roughly seven hours later, divers found him underwater beside that same dock. Police have identified the spot as the private dock of the Pridwin Hotel.
How the Search Unfolded
His wife alerted hotel staff when he failed to return from the water, and the staff called for emergency help. Police said officers from Shelter Island Town Police, firefighters from the Shelter Island Fire Department and crews from Shelter Island Town Emergency Medical Services (EMS) answered a report of a missing swimmer shortly after noon.
Police helicopters and multiple marine units joined a search that spread across the Crescent Beach-North Channel area of Shelter Island Sound and the waterways around it. Shelter Island EMS added two ambulances and several volunteers to the marine and air crews already working.
Divers located Korwin about 3 p.m., and authorities concluded that drowning had killed him. Detectives working alongside the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office regard the death as accidental and have found no indication of criminality, Thilberg said. Police said the investigation remains open, and the medical examiner will set the official cause and manner of death.
Conditions on the Water That Day
John Kirincic, a master mariner for the Southold Town Police Department’s Marine One, described the weather that day to the Shelter Island Reporter. “There was no fog or anything bad,” he said. The current in that stretch is frequently strong all the same, Kirincic noted, because the tide runs through such a narrow passage.
A Fixture on the East End Circuit
A 2010 graduate of Syracuse University, Korwin qualified for Team USA Triathlon in 2012 and raced at the World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. That same year he also became a Gatorade-sponsored athlete.
Long Island’s endurance-sports scene knew him well, too, and he piled up podium finishes at races across the East End. On his LinkedIn profile, he noted that he had won both the Montauk Point Lighthouse Triathlon and the Mighty Montauk Sprint Triathlon.
In 2021 he founded Korwin Health & Wellness, advising competitive athletes and ordinary clients alike on rest, nutrition and balancing the demands of daily life, even as he logged his own training hours for Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events. He described his work as helping people “achieve goals that once seemed out of reach.”
His grandfather was Irving Korwin, a World War II veteran who founded Wideband Coin Jewelry and died in 2020 in Arizona.
Funeral Service
The funeral service for Korwin began at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 6, in Manhattan.
Korwin is survived by his wife, Carly Korwin, and their two daughters, Sadie, four, and Colette, one. Josh Grosbard, David Himmel and Jeffrey Witten launched a GoFundMe campaign for the family on September 4, and by the evening of September 10 it had passed $405,000 from more than 800 donors, against a $500,000 goal. One anonymous donor gave $38,000. The total is still climbing, and organizers said the money will go into an education fund for the two girls. Korwin was a regular presence in the Hamptons, and he and his wife were married on the beach in Bridgehampton.
A small island town wedged between the North and South forks of eastern Long Island, Shelter Island draws heavy summer traffic from vacationing families, and town police and volunteer emergency crews patrol its waters. Departments from across the area answered the missing-swimmer call on September 2 before divers ended the search that afternoon.
Police have described the drowning as accidental, but the investigation is continuing, and the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to issue its findings on the official cause and manner of death.