18 named Carnegie heroes for acts of extraordinary heroism

Posted on by Jewels Phraner

18 named Carnegie heroes for acts of extraordinary heroism

heroism

PITTSBURGH, December 18, 2018—Eighteen people – 16 Americans and two Canadians – were recently named Carnegie heroes for risking their lives for others in life-threatening situations, including seven children trapped in burning homes, burning cars, or in danger of drowning; two police officers assaulted while struggling to take men into custody; and a barista who was being threatened with a hunting knife.

Two of the eighteen heroes were teenagers, and three others gave their lives while attempting to save their fellow humans, including Bruce Maynor, Jr., who attempted to save a 10-year-old boy from drowning, Donald Michael Boles, who attempted to rescue his son-in-law and granddaughter from drowning, and Frank Williams, Jr., who helped save a stranger who was inside a car driven into a canal.

The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this final announcement of 2018 recipients, a total of 10,062 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow said each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant. Throughout the more than 114 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $40.5 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.

The awardees are:

Resumes of the acts follow. To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online, write the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission at 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, or call 1-800-447-8900 (toll-free). 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 and Twitter.

Brent Rudy Edwards Philadelphia

Seventeen-year-old Brent Rudy Edwards rescued his toddler nephew, Bryce Noel, from a burning home May 27, 2017, in Philadelphia. After fire broke out in a row house, adults inside evacuated four young children from the home. His mother roused Brent from sleep, and he followed his family outside, where his mother realized that Bryce, 23 months, was still inside. Despite thick, black smoke that had filled the first floor, Brent re-entered the house to search for his nephew. Hearing the toddler cough, Brent crawled inside the house 12 feet to him, clutched him to his chest, and ran toward the light at the front door. Once outside, he handed Bryce to his mother and collapsed, losing consciousness. Arriving paramedics revived him, and he and Bryce were taken to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. They recovered. Bryce was not burned.

Marcus L. Eliason Flagstaff, Ariz.

Seventeen-year-old Marcus L. Eliason saved his friend, Jonathan M. Woolverton, 17, from a burning vehicle Dec. 15, 2017 in Flagstaff, Ariz. Jonathan was driving an SUV that traveled off a road, struck a tree, and caught fire with him trapped in the driver’s seat. Jonathan’s passenger crawled from the vehicle and called their friend, Marcus who was nearby. When Marcus could not fully open the driver’s door to reach Jonathan, he pulled the window frame down toward the ground and then climbed to the burning car’s roof and used his hands and feet to break the driver’s window and push the window frame farther toward the ground, opening the door a little farther. Returning to the ground, he extended his upper body through the small opening, amid intense heat and thick smoke. Marcus grasped Jonathan, and after several tugs, pulled him from the vehicle, which flames shortly engulfed. Jonathan was hospitalized for a broken leg, but was not burned. Marcus sustained minor burns to his arm and recovered.

Bruce Maynor, Jr., deceased Thomasville, Ga.

Bruce Maynor, Jr., died April 30, 2017, while attempting to save 10-year-old Jaylen Walden from drowning in Eastpoint, Fla. Jaylen was playing in the Gulf of Mexico when a wave carried him away from shore to deeper water. He called for help. An adult with Jaylen at the beach, Maynor, 29, furniture delivery driver, swam 75 feet to Jaylen. Reaching Jaylen, the two appeared to struggle and were carried farther from shore. Two others entered the water with a boogie board. Maynor pushed Jaylen toward shore, and one of the others grasped him and towed him to shore. The other man swam to Maynor and positioned him on the board, but the rough surf broke the board and separated the two. Maynor drowned.

Donald Michael Boles, deceased Eagle Springs, N.C.

Donald Michael Boles died Oct. 7, 2017, while attempting to rescue Zachary K. Crumb, 29, and Zoe A. Crumb, 7, from drowning in Carolina Beach, N.C. Crumb and his daughter Zoe were swimming in the Atlantic Ocean when a rip current carried them farther from the beach. Crumb called for help. Crumb’s father-in-law, Boles, 60, code inspector, swam toward the two, despite the strong current. Boles grasped his granddaughter and attempted to return her to shore, but they became separated, and the current carried Boles to a point about 500 feet from the beach. Rescue personnel removed Crumb and Zoe from the water, and others took Boles, who was floating unconscious in the water, aboard a boat; he could not be revived. Zoe was nearly exhausted and had swallowed water; she was taken to the hospital where she was treated overnight and recovered.

John Thomas Prokop Duncan, B.C.

John Thomas Prokop helped to rescue a police officer from a July 8, 2016, assault in Duncan, B.C. Along a city street, a police officer struggled to detain a man who violently resisted arrest and was reaching for the officer’s duty belt which held a holstered handgun. Eventually the struggle continued on a church’s front porch, where the assailant put the officer in a headlock. The nearly exhausted officer later stated that he had difficulty breathing. The operator of a nearby billiard hall, Prokop, 49, ran to the pair and grasped the assailant, allowing the officer to escape the headlock. They all fell to the church steps, and the officer held the assailant in a headlock while Prokop pinned the assailant’s legs until backup officers arrived. The officer recovered from soreness to his throat and neck. Prokop scraped his arm and face but did not require medical attention.

Frank Williams, Jr., deceased New Orleans

Frank Williams, Jr., died Dec. 5, 2017, helping to rescue Honorio Lopez, 25, from drowning in New Orleans. Lopez was the front passenger in a car that entered a 10-feet-deep canal, floating to a point about 30 feet from a dock. One man entered the water and pried open the front, passenger door, before returning to the dock. As the car sank, Williams, 50, restaurant cook, dove into the canal and swam to the car. He grasped Lopez who was by then outside the car and moved with him toward the dock, but he struggled keeping Lopez afloat and ultimately submerged. Others removed Lopez from the water. Williams drowned.

Eugene Stamsta Oconto, Wis.

Sixty-five-year-old welder Eugene Stamsta helped to save Anne M. Nerenhausen, 75, from drowning on July 18, 2017, in the Oconto River near Oconto, Wis. While attempting to jump onto an inner tube at a river bank near her home, Nerenhausen fell into the river and struggled to swim in swift current, which carried her downstream. Her fiancé yelled for help, alerting neighbors including Stamsta, who, wearing a tool belt, ran to a rocky embankment and entered the water. As Nerenhausen began to submerge, Stamsta swam to her. He told investigators that she was limp as he towed her to the bank. He secured his hold to a rock at the bank and kept her head above water, but he could not remove her from the water. Firefighters removed her with a board and ropes and Stamsta exited on his own. Nerenhausen was hospitalized and treated for hypothermia; she recovered.

David Duncan Hyannis, Mass.

Security employee David Duncan, 41, saved police officer James M. Melia, 61, from an Aug. 24, 2017, assault in Hyannis, Mass. Officer Melia was attempting to take a man into custody when the man fought with him and they fell to a sidewalk. A security employee, Duncan, stood nearby as the two men struggled. When another man, armed with a knife approached the scuffle, Duncan told the man to drop the knife, and then blocked the man’s path to Melia. Using both hands, he grasped the man’s hand and wrist, and they struggled. Duncan disarmed the man and threw the knife away from them. Other officers arrived shortly and arrested the assailants. Melia suffered a cut to his left hand and recovered; Duncan was not injured.

Cregg Jerri Fresno, Calif.

Cregg Jerri, a 58-year-old sales manager, saved a woman from a July 20, 2017, assault at a coffeehouse in Fresno, Calif. A barista was working the counter, when a masked man armed with a hunting knife and replica handgun approached and demanded money. Although he was closer to an exit, Jerri, the lone remaining customer, lifted a chair and struck the assailant, who turned and began to fight with Jerri. A violent struggle ensued, with the assailant swinging the knife at Jerri, and Jerri punching the assailant, bringing him to the floor. During the struggle, the assailant stabbed Jerri in the neck. Jerri then pushed the assailant down, leaned over him, and seized the knife, stabbing the assailant several times before they separated and the assailant fled. Jerri required staples and stitches to stop arterial bleeding from his wound, but he recovered. Police later arrested the assailant.

Jennifer Lynn Dixon and Aaron Andrew Young Middletown, Pa.

Jennifer Lynn Dixon and Aaron Andrew Young rescued teens Joseph Lewis Keating and Scott T. Shaffer from a burning car on Nov. 25, 2016 in Middletown, Pa. Keating, 18, and Shaffer, 19, were trapped in their overturned and burning car after a nighttime accident on a rural road. Dixon 27, distribution process worker, was driving nearby and stopped at the scene. Running to the car, Dixon burned her hand attempting to pry open the front, passenger door. After hearing Keating call for help, she kicked and shattered the window of the rear, passenger-side door. Crawling beneath flames coming from the car’s interior, she partially entered the car. Dixon grasped Keating, who had moved between the burning seats, and dragged most of his body from the car. Joined by her mother, they removed him fully from the car and patted out flames on his pants. Meanwhile, Young, 39, bank credit officer, responded to the scene from his nearby home. He went to the driver’s door, extended his arms through the shattered window, grasped Shaffer, who was burning, and pulled him to safety. Young patted out the flames on Shaffer’s pants with a sweatshirt until a police officer arrived with a fire extinguisher and assisted. Keating and Shaffer were hospitalized for several weeks for treatment of burns and other injuries, but recovered. Dixon was hospitalized for treatment of smoke inhalation, shortness of breath and burns to her hand, but she also recovered.

Joshua Stewart Wright Dahlonega, Ga. Jay Ross Muxworthy Carolina Beach, N.C.

On April 24, 2016, Joshua Stewart Wright saved 2-year-old Jacquelyn D. Andrews, and Jay Ross Muxworthy attempted to rescue 13-month-old James C. Andrews III from a burning SUV in Wilmington, N.C. After a crash in which the SUV’s transmission breached the passenger compartment, siblings Jacquelyn and James remained in the middle row. Flames broke out in its engine area. Wright, 35, electrician, and Muxworthy, 48, restaurant operator, went to the scene. Unable to open the car’s doors, Wright climbed through an opening at the rear windshield, advanced to the middle of the SUV, and grasped Jacquelyn, passing her outside to a bystander. As conditions worsened inside, he exited. Multiple people helped pry open the rear, driver’s-side door, and as flames spread toward James’ safety seat, Muxworthy entered the SUV to his waist and attempted to free James amid blistering heat. Overcome by the conditions, he was forced to withdraw. Flames rapidly engulfed the vehicle, and James did not survive. Jacquelyn was hospitalized for minor injuries, but she was not burned. Wright declined medical attention at the scene, and Muxworthy was hospitalized for nine days for treatment of his burns. He underwent additional treatment for several months following the accident.

Samantha Olive Barnhouse Antioch, Calif.

Thirty-year-old Samantha Olive Barnhouse saved Lobis Burton, 78, from a burning house on Feb. 17, 2018, in Antioch, Calif. Alerted to the fire, Barnhouse, who lived across the street from Burton’s apartment building, entered Burton’s apartment. She moved past the burning kitchen to reach Burton, who was sitting in a wheeled desk chair in a bedroom, unable to move due to an injured hip. Barnhouse pulled the desk chair through the bedroom and into the hall, and as flames and smoke intensified, she moved the chair past the kitchen and to the front door. The chair became stuck, and Barnhouse pulled on it, freeing it and causing her and Burton to fall outside beneath flames issuing overhead through the doorway. Within a minute, the apartment’s windows shattered due to the heat. Burton was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and a broken hip, but he was no burned. Barnhouse was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation; she recovered.

Svetlana S. Reut Loganville, Ga.

Svetlana S. Reut rescued 9-year-old Cameron Wagstaff from three attacking dogs on Jan. 24, 2018, in Loganville, Ga. Cameron was playing outside when three pit bull dogs, all weighing about 70 pounds, knocked him to the ground and bit him. Cameron screamed for help, and Reut, 29, medical lab technician, responded. When she reached Cameron, the dogs were gnawing and clawing his face. She grasped Cameron by the hand and pulled him to his feet. They ran to a nearby yard and became separated. The dogs then attacked Reut, knocking her to the ground and biting her face and arm. The dogs’ owner responded and took one of the dogs back to his yard. Cameron, who had remained nearby, and Reut retreated to her house, and the other two dogs ultimately left the vicinity. Cameron was treated for his injuries. Reut was taken to the hospital for treatment of her injuries, which included bite wounds to her mouth and arm.

Mark Oscar Tuura New Westminster, B.C.

Mark Oscar Tuura, on Oct. 18, 2015, saved an unidentified man from drowning in the Fraser River near New Westminster, B.C. A man floundered and called for help in the 50-degree water about 50 feet from a pier. Tuura, 57, stevedore, was atop the pier when a witness alerted him to the man’s plight. Fully clothed and wearing steel-toed work boots, Tuura grabbed a coil of rope from his truck, climbed down a 15-foot-long chain to a boat anchored in the river, and searched for a flotation device. Unable to fine one, Tuura climbed back up the chain and ran along the pier to keep pace with the man who was being carried downstream. Tuura then climbed down another chain onto a boom log and dove into the river. Grasping the man with one arm, Tuura side-stroked back to the boom log, where he supported the man, who was by then unconscious. Tuura assisted arriving firefighters by tying ropes around the man’s arms and belt and lifting him to the deck of the pier. He was taken to the hospital. Tuura declined treatment at the scene and was not injured.

Eric Martin and Patrick Nolan McCarty Ohiopyle, Pa.

On June 26, 2017, whitewater rafting guides Eric Martin and Patrick Nolan McCarty saved Arnetta D. Johnson, 55, from drowning in the Youghiogheny River near Ohiopyle, Pa. McCarty also saved Raecyne W. Bechtold, 45. Friends Johnson and Bechtold were whitewater rafting when their raft overturned, flowed past the take-out point, and became stuck at a bridge pier in the middle of the swift-flowing and swollen river. Partially submerged, Johnson clutched the raft as Bechtold lay on top of it. Martin, 47, whitewater rafting business operator, and McCarty, 29, whitewater rafting business executive director, each obtained single-person kayaks and launched them without safety gear. As Martin arrived at the pier, Johnson grasped onto his kayak, and the raft dislodged and floated free with Bechtold, toward a 20-foot-high waterfall. While Martin towed Johnson downstream toward the nearest bank, McCarty paddled downstream ahead of the raft and used his kayak to steer and slow the raft, guiding it to the bank where Bechtold reached safety. Meanwhile, Martin and Johnson were stuck on an exposed rock ledge. McCarty paddled there and secured Johnson with a rope. The three of them then waded toward the bank, where others helped remove Johnson from the water.