A 22-year-old Boswell man known for his basketball achievements and
remembered for his maturity died in a farm accident Monday morning.
J. Caleb Dimmich of 857 W. Road 850 S. in Benton County, was
pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. at St. Vincent Hospital in Williamsport
after being electrocuted while trying to repair a grain auger motor, the
Warren County Sheriff's Department reported.
"He was a just a great human being," said Nelson Bane, who was
Dimmich's basketball coach at Benton Central High School. "It just makes
you realize how uncertain life is. But my heart goes out to his family
and everybody because this is a loss for the whole community as well."
Dimmich was working with his father, David, in a grain bin at 7723 N.
800 W. near Tab in Warren County. Caleb, who had arrived at the work
site first, told his father that one of the bins had a short in an auger
motor.
As David was shoveling corn out of an adjacent bin, Caleb was leaning
in the door of the bin with the faulty motor and was watching the sweep
auger. David noticed Caleb's leg twitching and called out to him, but
got no response. When he realized his son was being electrocuted, he
shut off the power. Attempts by his father and rescue personnel to
revive Caleb failed.
A Benton Central High School graduate, Caleb briefly held a place in
the school's record book in 1995 as the Bisons' career boys basketball
scoring leader with 1,216 points. But being a record-setter didn't go to
Caleb's head, said Bane, who noted that Caleb had a high level of
maturity.
"He was so mature for a kid his age. He was a kid, but you knew you
could talk to him like he was an adult," Bane said.
Caleb's basketball success continued into his college career at
Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, where he led the team in scoring
this past season and scored more than 1,000 career points. He would have
been a senior this fall.
His high school record was broken not by a basketball rival, but by
his best friend, Ben Anderson.
Anderson spoke candidly about Dimmich, who had treated him like a
little brother. Anderson reminisced of times the two went fishing,
played basketball, and worked on Caleb's dad's farm together. The two
even talked about farming together 10 years down the road.
"He was a role model for me. I couldn't ask for a better best
friend," Anderson said in a telephone interview from his home in Terre
Haute.
"Caleb was truly a man of God. God has blessed him, and through
Caleb, God has blessed myself and others who knew Caleb."
He summed up his feelings about Caleb in two sentences meant for
Caleb's parents: "Thank you, Dave and Kristin, for bringing such a great
son into the world. He has truly blessed my life."
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