Twenty-eight-year-old William (Bill) Moritz was on a beach with his 6-year-old daughter Saturday afternoon in northeast Florida preparing for his father's funeral when family members said the girl was swept away by a tumultuous tide.
Moritz jumped into the strong surf to save her, his family said, and lost his life sparing hers.
"As a result of saving [the girl's] life he ultimately lost his," Nicole Doherty, a family friend, wrote over the weekend on a GoFundMe page for the family.
Family members said they were planning to hold a memorial service for Moritz's father on the beach later that day. After Moritz drowned, the service was canceled.
"Bill was the most kindhearted selfless person I knew," the girl's mother, Magan, said in a statement to WJAX-TV. "There was never a time he didn't put others before himself. Anyone could depend on Bill for anything in the world. He was the kind of person people were so grateful to have in their life and I was so lucky to have him in mine.