A funeral will be held this afternoon for the governor who led the charge in the 2018 effort to recover a team of young footballers and their coach from a flooded cave.
Former Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn will be honored at Wat Phra Sri Mahathat Woramahawihan in Bangkok following his death last night at the age of 58. His family said he died of lung cancer.
Since 2021, Narongsak most recently served as governor of Pathum Thani province.
He had been fired from the top administrative post in Chiang Rai and was in the final weeks of his tenure when the boys disappeared. At the time, it was said he was being transferred to a smaller province, Phayao, because he got in the way of corrupt Chiang Rai development projects.
The official announcement of his death praised him for diligently caring for his constituents and promoting religion and culture.
Members of the Wild Boars team expressed their sympathies.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the family of Mr. Narongsak Osottanakorn,” they said in a statement.
Inside the national park where the rescue took place, at a museum erected since it captured the world’s attention, a July 10 event commemorating the fifth anniversary of the successful rescue is being prepared. That’s the day all who were trapped inside the cave were rescued in 2018.
The schedule has been adjusted to include a memorial for Narongsak.
Duangphet “Dom” Phromthep, the rescued Wild Boars’ team captain, was buried back home earlier this year after he died at a football academy in England. His cause of death was not revealed.
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