Jason Stern, a former Bangor High School swimming star and son of the late Marshall Stern, died unexpectedly Monday on Mount Desert Island.

A private funeral service for the 28-year-old Stern, formerly of Bangor, was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. today in Canton, Mass. Services were to be held at the Stanetsky Memorial Chapels at 475 Washington St.

Stern, a free-lance photographer living in New York, spent 1 1/2 years sailing around the world with four friends. One of the photographs he took on that trip appeared on the cover of Sail magazine in February 1999.

Stern, whose father was a prominent Bangor lawyer, took a leave of absence from Georgetown University’s law school to board a 55-foot Baltic sloop called First Light. The trip changed the course of his future.

He told the Bangor Daily News on his return in August 1999 that somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean he decided to leave law school and devote himself to photography full time.

Stern’s passion for sailing grew in 1995 as he recovered at his family’s Seal Harbor home after the car accident that killed his father and two other people June 7, 1995, in Greenbush.

The only survivor of the accident, Stern was left with a leg broken in eight places and a severe brain injury. After spending a week in the intensive care unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and two more months in the hospital, he went to Mount Desert Island to recuperate.

He entered Georgetown in the fall of 1997, traveling from Maine to Washington, D.C., in a 34-foot sailboat.

Stern worked in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Rep. John Baldacci. Stern sent Baldacci postcards and e-mails during his trip around the world.

“I will personally miss him very much,” Baldacci said from Washington Tuesday. “I wish his family all my sympathy and my prayers are with them.”

A 1990 Bangor High graduate, Stern was a member of the Rams’ Class A state championship swimming teams from 1987 to 1990. In his four years on the squad the Rams never lost a meet, from dual meets to Penobscot Valley Conference and state championships.

Stern was an individual state champion in the 500-yard freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and was on a state champion medley relay team.

Stern kept in touch with Bangor swimming coach Phil Emery for years after Stern’s graduation and sent Emery letters from his trip around the world.

“He was a kid, a 4.0 [grade point average] student, but he affected everybody,” Emery said Tuesday. “He was infectious in a positive way with everybody. When he went into a room he had a positive impact on everybody. It’s a devastating loss.”

Sean MacMillan, a Bangor classmate and teammate of Stern’s on the swim team, said Stern was successful in so many aspects of his life because of his work ethic.

“He was just one of those people that accomplished whatever he wanted to through hard work and determination. He’s just the perfect example of what can happen when you work hard in swimming and in school.”

Stern swam for Dartmouth College while he attended the school and served as a team captain in his senior year.

Stern is survived by his mother, Donna Lilienthal of West Palm Beach, Fla., and his uncle, Deane Stern of Bangor.