Wellesley man dies in Argentina crash

Noted executive one of two killed

A Wellesley man who formerly led the New England division of the financial services firm Ernst & Young was killed Sunday night in a car crash near Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern-most reaches of South America.

Police Inspector Hector Santiago Diaz said that Thomas Patrick McDermott, 73, of Wellesley, died along with a companion, Thomas Fritz, 75, of McLean, Va., in the accident. Fritz's son, William, said last night that the truck they were riding in had turned over.

The driver, William Smith Kanaga, 83, of Massachusetts was pinned beneath the vehicle but survived, William Fritz said. No other cars were involved. The men were reportedly on a fishing trip.

A representative of the US embassy in Buenos Aires notified the families yesterday morning of the accident, William Fritz said. The representative said Kanaga was in serious but stable condition, he added.

He said the State Department is investigating the crash. An embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Family members said the men became fast friends through their work. Thomas Fritz and McDermott found a shared devotion to Catholicism and to public service. Calls to Ernst & Young were not immediately returned.

The trio had traveled before to the extremely remote region, Clare McDermott said, recalling that her father often visited his wife's family in Chile. Thomas McDermott was in Chile with his wife and family for the holidays before he went south with his two companions earlier this month.

"He just had a passion; he loved life and he lived it fully, even in his 70s," Clare McDermott said.

Fritz was the chairman of Pittsburgh-based Innovative Systems Inc. and the former chief executive of the Private Sector Council, his colleagues said.

After the three men retired in early 1990s, they took dozens of philanthropic trips to South America, family members said. They would often help schools and churches, at one time assisting a Bolivian school secure a fresh water supply, Clare McDermott said.

"He lived his life to serve others," she said.

William Fritz added, "My father would always say that service was an obligation for the gifts that God gave you."

Kanaga's family could not be reached for comment.

McDermott leaves a wife, Maria, and three daughters. Fritz leaves a wife, Barbara; two sons, and a daughter.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.