The Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 17 individuals, including a trained water rescuer who entered a capsized boat when other professional rescuers were unable, a recreational rock climber who ascended slick sandstone to save a badly injured BASE jumper in Utah, and a 40-year-old delivery driver who ran into a gunfight to drag a wounded police officer to safety in Texas.
All the men and women recognized today, in acts of extraordinary heroism, risked serious injury or death to save others. This is the Hero Fund’s first award announcement for 2024. Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Other rescuers this quarter include a college wrestler that pulled an attacking grizzly bear off his friend to then be attacked himself, a woman who put herself between another woman and four attacking pit bulls, and a man who rammed his tractor into a burning home to remove the woman unconscious inside.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,422 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904. Those in public safety vocations must go beyond their line of duty to be considered. Relevant training or specialized skills on the part of the rescuer are considered against the requirement of extraordinary risk.
Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $45 million has been given in one time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance
The awardees are:
Jeffrey A. Hilke, Jefferson City, Missouri
Scott E. Duncan, Kansas City, Missouri
River Barry, Millcreek, Utah
Robert J. Selfridge III, Harvey Cedars, New Jersey
Bruce J. Lake, Truro, Nova Scotia
Kendell Bybee Cummings, Evanston, Wyoming
Junyi Liu, Comox, British Columbia
Ashley Harkins, Westbrook, Connecticut
Stephen Harder, Quincy, Washington
John Phillips Lally, Jr., Houston
Jeffrey Tanner, Lima, New York
Wegayewu S. Faris, deceased, Coralville, Iowa
James John Vlacich, Ridge, New York
Michael Louis Lesan, Cincinnati
Robyn Handley, Florissant, Missouri
Tawny Hinton, deceased, Bentonville, Arkansas
Jakob Thompson, Lantana, Florida
To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online or write to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Jeffrey A. Hilke and Scott E. Duncan
After hearing screams at an April 21, 2021, private service in the chapel of an Eldon, Missouri, funeral home, funeral director Jeffrey A. Hilke, 47, of Jefferson City, responded. He saw a tall, large man, 55, brandishing a handgun. The man had entered his father’s service and attempted to force outside a woman, 51, who was also attending the service with her three children. Hilke ran to the assailant, pushed him against a wall, and grasped the weapon. Scott E. Duncan, a 51-year-old maintenance technician of Kansas City, Missouri, who was attending the service, also responded, running to the assailant, who outweighed him. He also grasped the gun. The three men struggled for control of the weapon, while others, including the woman, fled the building. The men fell to the floor, with Hilke at the bottom of the pile-up, gasping for air. The gun fired, and the bullet hit the floor. The gun’s magazine fell out of the gun, but the assailant reached for a fully loaded magazine in his pocket to reload. Duncan pushed the assailant’s arm to the ground and held it there to prevent him from reloading. Police responded and still the assailant wouldn’t release the gun. A responding officer stepped on the assailant’s hand and sprayed pepper spray at him, until he released the weapon. The assailant was taken into custody, convicted, and sentenced to 34 years in prison. Hilke suffered a broken sternum and bruised ribs from the incident. The woman, Duncan, and others in the room were not injured.
River Barry
A 39-year-old BASE jumper hung by his parachute 70 feet above the ground on Nov. 26, 2022 in Moab, Utah. He had jumped from the top of the 400-foot cliff, but his parachute deployed in the wrong direction, slammed him into the cliff face, and then got caught on an outcropping, leaving him badly injured and dangling. Thirty-year-old River Barry, who was in the area to go mountain biking, was flagged down by the man’s friend asking if anyone had climbing gear. Barry, a mental health therapist of Millcreek, Utah, went to the scene and used her own climbing gear and recreational experience to ascend a crack that ran up the side of the cliff directly below the injured man. No one had climbed the crack before and locals referred to the sandstone on the cliff as “slick rock” for its slippery conditions. With the help of the man’s friend belaying her from the ground, Barry climbed to a point above the man and clipped her harness to his. She cut away his parachute and descended to the ground, bearing the man’s weight, to waiting rescuers. The man suffered a compound fracture of his leg and underwent extensive physical therapy. Barry was not injured.
Robert J. Selfridge III
“This could be a one-way trip,” one eyewitness told rescuer Robert J. Selfridge III, 58, of Harvey Cedars, New Jersey, before he dove into the Barnegat Inlet on Aug. 7, 2022, to rescue a 4-year-old and her mother who were trapped inside the cabin of a capsized boat sinking off the Jersey coast. He was the fourth trained and experienced rescuer to attempt to swim under the gunwale of the boat and enter the cabin, but cold water, and limited visibility thwarted the efforts of the other three. Four-year-old Ryleigh Krause sat on her mother’s shoulders, and they both kept their heads above water in an air pocket inside the cabin. As the boat sank, the air pocket shrank and water rose to the mother’s chin. Selfridge, an off-duty EMT and volunteer lifeguard, arrived at the scene on a WaveRunner to find rescuers using towboat lines to attempt to right the 23-foot-long boat. After determining those efforts were not working and racing against the setting sun, Selfridge told other rescuers “We gotta go under” and, borrowing a diving mask and taking several deep breaths, submerged, swimming under the gunwale and into the cabin. Maneuvering around broken railings and debris, Selfridge took Ryleigh from her mother, told her to take a deep breath, and, carrying her, swam out of the cabin, out from under the boat, and surfaced, the mother following. Selfridge sustained a broken finger but no life-threatening injuries.
Bruce J. Lake
Holli J. Robertson, 20, was swimming with friends on Aug. 19, 2023, in the Broad River in Fundy National Park near Alma, New Brunswick, when she lost her footing and was pulled into an area of turbulent water. She attempted to move to safety, but whirling currents trapped her in the 8 feet of water. She held onto a large boulder to keep the currents from sucking her underwater. In another party hiking in the area, off-duty police officer Bruce J. Lake, 48, from Truro, Nova Scotia, saw Robertson struggling. Lake and another man in his party positioned themselves downstream and told her to let go of the boulder. She did and immediately submerged. When she did not resurface immediately, Lake jumped into the water, feeling around for Robertson, and then, after finding her, grasping her arm. Lake kicked and used his free arm to swim to the surface and pushed Robertson, toward the bank from which Lake had jumped, where another woman grabbed her hand. Lake felt himself being pulled back into the strong current when Robertson grasped his hand and the two were pulled to the boulder together. Both were assisted from the water. Robertson had swallowed water and sustained lacerations to her body; Lake was nearly exhausted and sustained a laceration to his elbow. They recovered.
Kendell Bybee Cummings
A group of four college students were hiking a mountain in a remote area of the Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyoming, on Oct. 15, 2022. Almost immediately after friends Kendell Bybee Cummings, 19, and Brady R. Lowry, 21, discovered fresh bear scat, a grizzly bear came out of the nearby woods and attacked Lowry, striking him with its paws and knocking him to the ground. The bear bit his arm, fracturing the bone. Running from about 60 feet away Cummings, of Evanston, Wyoming, moved to a point about 20 feet behind the bear as it continued to attack Lowry. Cummings shouted and threw rocks and sticks at the bear, but it did nothing to deter the animal from continuing its attack. Cummings then ran up behind the bear where he pulled on its ear and fur to disrupt its attack on Lowry. The bear swung its head around and pursued Cummings as he ran, while Lowry left the scene to get help. The estimated 450-pound grizzly bear then attacked Cummings twice, biting him numerous times in his arm, leg, and head, before it eventually walked away. Lowry managed to get a cell phone signal and called 911 before meeting the two other friends. They searched for Cummings, eventually meeting him as he descended. They carried him part of the way as they walked to a road at the bottom of the mountain. Lowry and Cummings were taken to a hospital to be treated for their injuries. Lowry suffered a fractured arm and puncture wounds to his body. Cummings sustained puncture wounds to his arms, legs, head, and face. Both were scarred extensively and Lowry’s wrist continued to heal.
Junyi Liu
On May 20, 2023, a 76-year-old woman pulled into a Comox, British Columbia, gas station and struck a gas pump. Flames erupted at the front end of the car. Inside the station, co-owner Junyi Liu, 41, of Comox, immediately turned off the electrical breakers to the gas pumps, but about 1 gallon of gas in the fuel pump hose also caught fire. Within seconds, the heat from the fire burned off the rubber nozzles on a nearby propane dispenser, spilling propane onto the woman’s vehicle, which accelerated the fire. Flames quickly reached 10 feet high. Liu ran out of the store with a fire extinguisher, but the extinguisher’s pin was too tight and would not work. He ran to the car and opened its front, passenger door but he could not reach the car’s driver. A bystander joined in the efforts to help, while Liu ran to the driver’s-side door, nearest the flames, just as the woman began opening the driver’s door. With flames reaching the ceiling of the carport, Liu pushed open the door the rest of the way and picked up the woman, carrying her to safety. Within 10 seconds from the time of the crash, flames engulfed the fuel station’s entire carport. The woman was in shock and had suffered minor burns to her face but recovered. Liu suffered minor burns to his hand and arm but did not seek treatment.
Ashley Harkins
A suicidal woman in her early 60s had climbed a 10-foot safety fence on the Baldwin Bridge in Old Lyme, Connecticut, on Nov. 27, 2023, and sat on a 9-inch-wide concrete ledge 80 feet above the Connecticut River. Ashley Harkins, 37, a police sergeant from Westbrook, Connecticut, had finished her shift and was off-duty but responded to the 911 call along with another sergeant. The other sergeant attempted to talk to the shivering woman while Harkins scaled the fence behind her with no safety equipment or ropes. She descended the other side to the narrow ledge, scooted a few feet toward the woman, and then maneuvered to have one arm and one leg on either side of her. She gripped the fence and secured the woman to the fence with her body to keep her from falling. Harkins helped place the woman’s foot on her thigh for leverage while she grasped the fence with one hand. Harkins pushed the woman up by her foot so she could climb the fence to waiting officers. The woman was cold from exposure to wind and temperatures in the low 50s but was otherwise uninjured. She was taken to a hospital for emergency mental health evaluation. Harkins was not injured during the incident.
Stephen Harder
A fire broke out in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, 2023, in the Quincy, Washington, home of a 67-year-old woman who suffered from long-term illnesses and utilized home oxygen. The woman was unresponsive on the kitchen floor of her one-story house after a fire ignited in the living room, where there were oxygen cylinders. Her daughter retreated outside, called 911, and told the dispatcher that her mother remained inside. Before firefighters responded, on-duty police officer Stephen Harder, 38, from Quincy, and an accompanying detective, arrived on the scene and saw smoke issuing from the house. Harder, who was a former firefighter, opened the front door and saw flames in the living room. He and the detective went to the rear door of the house and opened it to smoke filling a hallway from the ceiling to a point about 18 inches off the floor. Harder and the detective crawled along the narrow hallway and turned into the kitchen. He found the woman unresponsive on the ground with the flames about 10 feet away. He grabbed her and pulled her to him. Crawling backward with her, he entered the hallway. The detective by then had returned to the rear porch for fresh air after she was overcome by the smoke. Harder pulled the woman to the doorway, where he was helped by the detective to carry the woman from the house. Outside, the woman was revived, and she was taken to a hospital. Harder and the detective both inhaled smoke but were medically cleared at a hospital.
John Phillip Lally, Jr.
A Nov. 11, 2023, shoot-out on a Houston freeway left one police officer shot and others immediately seeking cover after a 19-year-old man crashed a stolen vehicle and then opened fire on the pursuing police. Officer Jonathan Gibson, 29, had approached the car and ordered the driver out of the car, when he was shot in the left leg. Gibson attempted to hobble away as his partner provided cover and shot at the stolen car from their police cruiser. John Phillip Lally, Jr., a 40-year-old delivery truck driver from Houston, was stopped on the freeway. Lally exited his truck and saw Gibson fall, unable to seek cover from the shooting. Amid the gunfire, Lally shouted to Gibson and told him to come toward him as he moved closer. Another officer reached Gibson and dragged him by his ballistic vest about 25 feet as Lally approached. Lally grasped Gibson’s vest while he walked backwards with the other officer, and pulled Gibson about 40 feet to cover behind Lally’s truck. The assailant was shot by police and later died. Gibson was admitted to a hospital and was released a few days later. Lally was not injured during the incident.
Jeffrey Tanner
On Nov. 9, 2021, Cynthia Chambery, 67, was in a bedroom of her one-story house in Lima, New York, when a fire broke out in the basement. Her husband told police he smelled smoke in the garage and exited. Neighbor Jeffrey Tanner, 48, a technical solution manager, was outside his home when he saw smoke coming from Chambery’s residence. Tanner drove to the scene and saw flames in the home’s garage immediately. Concluding there was no safe way to enter the residence, with heavy smoke and floor-to-ceiling flames inside, Tanner suggested using his tractor and a sledgehammer to break through the bedroom wall from the outside and then rushed home to get the tools. He rammed the front end of his tractor into the exterior wall several times and then used the sledgehammer to break the interior wall, creating a hole about 3 feet wide. A state police fire investigator said the basement, below the bedroom, was likely on fire when Tanner entered the home; the heat was blistering. Moving furniture aside, Tanner crawled into the room and found Chambery, unconscious with her upper body hanging off her bed. Tanner grasped her arm to pull her from the bed. Pulling her by her clothes, he crawled with her, inches at a time, toward the opening until they made it outside. A state trooper who had arrived helped Tanner move Chambery a safe distance from the house. The trooper performed CPR until an ambulance arrived, where she was taken to a hospital, and later died from smoke inhalation. Tanner sustained burns to his arm and was left with scarring.
Wegayewu S. Faris, deceased
A father was fishing at a bank of the Iowa River on Aug. 5, 2022, in Lone Tree, Iowa, when an 8-year-old boy entered the water and, after he waded out deeper, struggled to swim. High school custodian Wegayewu S. Faris, 42, of Coralville, Iowa, tossed aside his fishing rod and entered the water after him. Faris waded and swam until he eventually reached the boy, and he put him on his back. Then he, too, struggled in the current. Faris and the boy were separated as the two were drawn toward the middle of the river. A kayaker in the river heard calls for help and saw the boy bobbing in the water. The kayaker paddled upriver and reached the boy, who by then was unconscious and not breathing. After performing chest compressions, the boy coughed up water, and the kayaker paddled him to shore and returned to the vicinity to search for Faris. The boy’s father also had entered the water at one point and safely returned to shore. The kayaker searched for several minutes for Faris but was unsuccessful. The boy was revived on the shore and taken to a hospital, where he recovered and was released the next day. Firefighters recovered the body of Faris an hour after the incident began. He had drowned.
James John Vlacich
A 53-year-old woman was inside her Ridge, New York, home when a fire broke out in her living room on Jan. 20, 2022. The woman had poor mobility related to several health conditions. Her neighbor, 51-year-old machinist James John Vlacich, was preparing for work when he noticed smoke and flames coming from the woman’s home. He called 911 before he took a fire extinguisher from his garage and ran across the street. He encountered the woman’s roommate outside, who informed him that the woman was still inside. Vlacich approached the home and called for the woman as he attempted to extinguish flames coming from the front door, but ultimately the flames continued to burn. Vlacich ran to the home’s rear door, which entered into a sun porch. Vlacich then moved through the sun porch before entering a sliding door that connected the sun porch to the home’s kitchen, where he encountered black smoke from floor to ceiling. He called out to the woman, who replied and said she could not see anything. Vlacich used the fire extinguisher to briefly clear the smoke and allowed him to see the woman, who was lying on the floor between the living and dining rooms, before the smoke blocked his view. His extinguisher now empty, he discarded it. Smoke forced Vlacich back to the doorway. He went to his hands and knees and crawled 18 feet to the woman. Grasping her by the ankles, he dragged her while retracing his steps. At the sliding door, he stood and cradled the woman, carrying her through the sun porch to safety outside. Emergency personnel arrived shortly and took the woman to the hospital, where she was treated for second- and third-degree burns, but she recovered. Vlacich was nearly physically exhausted but did not require medical treatment.
Michael Louis Lesan
Two teenage girls were swimming on June 22, 2023, in the Atlantic Ocean off of Edisto Beach, South Carolina, when they were caught in a rip current and struggled to swim. Wind gusted up to 28 m.p.h., creating 6-foot waves and choppy water. As the older of the two girls was carried out farther from shore, financial advisor Michael Louis Lesan, 41, of Cincinnati, was on the beach with his family when he spotted the girls. He entered the ocean and swam about 120 feet to the older girl, who was bobbing in the strong waves. Lesan reached her and grasped her by the arm. He started to swim toward shore as waves crashed over them, being pushed and pulled. The girl submerged with Lesan twice, and he began to tire. Once both could stand close to shore, the girl walked out of the water on her own. Lesan walked, then crawled a few feet to exit the water. The girl vomited water on the beach while Lesan was nearly exhausted. Both recovered.
Robyn Handley
On Dec. 22, 2020, a 72-year-old woman was out for a walk in a Florissant, Missouri, neighborhood, when four pit bull dogs attacked her on a sidewalk. The dogs knocked her to the ground, mauled her, bit into her body and limbs, and tore off parts of her scalp. Several houses away across the street, assembly worker Robyn Handley, 64, of Florissant, heard the woman’s screams and ran barefoot about 150 feet to the woman. She advanced quickly, waved her arms, and shouted at the dogs as they continued to attack the woman. Handley shielded the woman with her own body as the dogs eventually dispersed, circling in a yard nearby, and she yelled for help. A second woman, 67, heard the screams for help and was approaching the scene from the opposite direction when she was immediately attacked by the dogs. She was knocked to the ground and the dogs began to bite her legs. Handley moved away from the first woman and advanced on the group of dogs again, waving her arms and driving the dogs away. The attack ended when one dog ran off and the others followed. With all the dogs dispersed, another neighbor arrived and loaded the severely injured first woman into his car to await medics. The first woman suffered extensive wounds to her scalp, severe damage to her eye and face, and deep leg wounds. She underwent multiple surgeries and continues to recover. The second woman was also treated for bite wounds to her legs. Handley suffered no injury during the incident. The dogs attacked two other people in another neighborhood. Eventually one dog was hit by a car and killed and the other three dogs were secured and euthanized.
Tawny Hinton, deceased
Two 11-year-old boys were playing near a retention pond in Bentonville, Arkansas, on Aug. 29, 2022, when the one of them slipped into the water and was pulled through a concrete drainage pipe. The boy’s brother entered the water and reached out to grasp him before the current caused him to lose his footing. He returned to the bank and ran for help. Bentonville social worker Tawny Hinton, 47, was with the boys’ mother at their nearby apartment when the brother told them the boy entered the water and submerged. Hinton and the mother ran to the pond, where both entered the water. Hinton waded, then swam in murky water to a fast-moving area near the pipe entrance close to where the boy was last seen. She then submerged to search for the boy before she, ultimately, did not resurface. The mother of the boys attempted to reach Hinton before she was forced to exit the pond from the strength of the current. Emergency personnel located the boy in a drainage ditch about 500 yards away. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead from drowning. Hinton was located unresponsive 50 feet away from the pond in a storm drain beneath a manhole. She was taken to a hospital, but never regained consciousness before life support was withdrawn five days later. Hinton died of cardiac arrest and complications from drowning.
Jakob Thompson
A 35-year-old woman entered the Boynton Inlet near Ocean Ridge, Florida, on Nov. 30, 2023. The inlet is flanked by seawalls making exiting the water extremely difficult. Additionally, a strong, outgoing tide was carrying her rapidly toward the Atlantic Ocean. This location was known for high water velocities and according to a local fire lieutenant, is “one of the most dangerous inlets in South Florida.” The woman struggled to swim in the 17-feet-deep water. High school student Jakob Thompson, 17, from Lantana, Florida, was nearby when he saw a group of people unsuccessfully trying to help the woman. He drove to the scene, removed his shirt, took a running jump from the seawall, and landed feet-first in the water. He swam about 90 feet to the woman, intercepted her, and secured her around the chest. She was breathing heavily and nearly exhausted, but she did not struggle. Jakob then towed the woman with one arm back to the same seawall, which was now more than 200 feet from where he jumped into the water. He held her to the wall until two men responded to pull her to safety atop the wall. Jakob then exited on his own. First responders arrived and took the woman to a hospital. Jakob had minor cuts on his hands and feet from the barnacles covering the seawall.