Documentary filmmaker and School of Communication Professor Chris Palmer died Saturday from injuries sustained in a tragic campus handstand accident.
To promote his standup comedy act, Palmer was posing for a Falcon photographer by doing one of his signature handstands in front of the Katzen Arts Center. The horn of a passing car caused him to lose concentration and fall headfirst into the Katzen fountain. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
"Well, it could have been any one of many injuries Mr. Palmer sustained during the fall that took his life," said Jon Paul Goddman, a D.C. paramedic. "I would go into it more, but I don't think you want to hear any more. People just don't understand the danger of handstands."
The paramedics arrived on the scene with every intention of reviving Palmer, but after seeing the carnage they stopped in their tracks. The area was immediately taped off to allow police to search the area until all of Palmer's fragments were found. School officials say Katzen will be closed for the entire week.
"The cleanup process will be a very expensive and extensive project," the head of AU's Maintenance Department said.
"Professor Palmer was a great environmental filmmaker," said Jacques Cousteau, whose grandson makes sexy underwater documentaries and was a close friend of Palmer's.
"He was really a very funny and energetic man."
This is the second recent blow to environmental filmmaking, after the recent stingray death of Steve "the Crocodile Hunter" Irwin in September 2006.
"After Palmer's death, I don't know if IMAX moviemaking will ever be the same again," said professor Kirk Neilman. "Palmer will be greatly missed by the AU community. He will always be remembered as the professor who died doing something he loved - handstands"
