A father of three died last week saving two of his children from a rip current while they were vacationing in Florida, family members and friends said.

Ryan Jennings and his family, from Maine, were on the beach swimming in Juno Beach on Wednesday afternoon, his wife, Emily Jennings, told NBC News. She was on the shore with their youngest daughter and niece building sandcastles, while he, their 12-year-old son and their 9-year-old daughter were in the water.

They were then suddenly caught in a rip current, she said.

Her son, Jax, ran to shore and said his dad and sister were drowning. Ryan Jennings threw their son and told him to swim to shore, while he held their daughter above his head so she wouldn’t take in any water, Emily Jennings said.

“They already know that he was a hero. That showed through his actions and the way he made them feel,” Emily Jennings said of her children. “I think that’s why everybody that he knew, knew he was a hero.”

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Ocean Rescue confirmed that lifeguards had a water rescue at 3:25 p.m. Wednesday near Juno Beach. Four people swimming in an unguarded area were brought to shore and taken to a local hospital. Conditions that day were “consistent with the potential for rip current activity.”

An incident report from the Juno Beach Police Department investigation confirmed that the Jennings family were rescued from the water. According to the report, the children told officers that they were struggling in the water when their father “came into the ocean to save them.”

Ryan Jennings was unconscious and being brought to shore when officers arrived. He was not breathing, prompting lifesaving measures until he was taken to Jupiter Medical Center, the report said.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A rip current is a narrow channel of fast-moving water; it is different from a rip tide, which is specific to water moving through inlets and the mouths of estuaries, embayments and harbors, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. An estimated 100 people die in rip currents annually, the agency said.

“This incident underscores the importance of swimming at guarded beaches, where trained lifeguards can identify hazardous conditions, including rough surf and rip current formation, helping to reduce the risk of incidents before they happen,” the rescue agency said.

Ryan Jennings’ mother, Gail McLaughlin Toti, thanked the first responders and medical personnel Sunday on Facebook for their efforts to save the family. She wrote that she would forever remember their kindness and compassion.

Emily Jennings met her husband while she was a single mom in nursing school. A month into dating, she said, her apartment burned down and Ryan Jennings insisted they move into his family’s home.

They fell “absolutely in love,” got married and had two more children, daughters Charlie and Bowie. Just a few weeks ago, Emily Jennings said, they learned she was pregnant with their fourth child.

“I don’t want Ryan’s legacy to be remembered for how he died, like, it has to be by how he lived,” she said. “And he lived with kindness and love and selfishness and every interaction he had and in every decision that he made.”

He is the love of her life, she added.

Ryan Jennings made people feel seen, his wife said, and was happiest with his family. He coached children’s sports and made a safe space for neighborhood kids to know they could always be welcome, his wife said.

“I just think he was too good, like he was just too good for this world,” she said.

A GoFundMe campaign started to help provide for her and their three children described Ryan Jennings as Emily’s “soul mate” and a loving father. More than $167,000 had been raised for the family by Monday morning.

“His heroic actions are a testament to the kind of person he was, and his loss leaves a tremendous void in the lives of everyone who knew him,” the campaign said.

Michael Carney, a friend, wrote in a tribute on Facebook that Ryan Jennings grew up in Massachusetts but moved to Maine to raise his family after he met his wife 10 years ago.

“In an instant your family’s life had changed,” he wrote. “We wanted you to know you’ll always be that hero.”