Counselors were at Park High School in Cottage Grove on Monday to talk with students upset about the news that a staff member had died in a fiery one-car crash early Friday.
Corbin Buss, 27, of Cottage Grove, died at the scene of the 1 a.m. crash in the 8400 block of East Point Douglas Road, police said Monday.
Buss was a Promise Fellow at the high school. Promise Fellows provide support as mentors, facilitate service learning and lead extracurricular activities. Buss had a caseload of 30 students at Park and attended and supported up to two classes a day, a school spokesman said.
“This is a devastating loss for our school, and our hearts go out to his family,” Park High School Principal Todd Herber wrote in an email to families.
Buss’ fiancée, Sydney Tobash, said Buss was an amazing man and father who dreamed of being a therapist to help “kids in need.” The couple’s son, Arthur, was born in February, and the couple got engaged on Mother’s Day, she said.
Buss worked two jobs to support his young family, and he “was always there for anyone who needed someone,” she wrote in a post on GoFundMe, the fundraising website. “He loved all of his coworkers from every job and everyone loved him. He was so intelligent and wise. He was so passionate about everything he loved. He was so obsessed with his comics.”
The couple had recently moved to Cottage Grove “to start our new life,” she wrote. “Everything was so great, and life was amazing. Life has gotten so hard for us now. (Arthur) keeps waiting for his daddy to come home, and soon he won’t remember him.”
When police officers and firefighters arrived at the crash site shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, they found a 2016 Dodge Challenger, which had flipped, fully engulfed in flames.
Buss’ passenger, Jeffrey Pariseau, 33, of Cottage Grove, was transported to Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury with non-life threatening injuries, according to police.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but the preliminary investigation reveals the vehicle was heading southbound on East Point Douglas Road when it missed a curve and hit a tree.
Authorities believe both speed and alcohol played a part in the crash.