Jason P. Maxwell, left, receives the Carnegie Medal from Hero Fund President Eric Zahren at a private ceremony held Dec. 14, 2019, at a restaurant in Tukwila, Wash.
Maxwell, of Maple Valley, Wash., jumped from a Seattle dock into water that was 50 feet deep and 59 degrees upon seeing a man in the water near a large cargo ship about 150 feet away. Grasping the man’s coveralls, Maxwell pulled the crewman to the water’s surface and towed him to a life ring that a bystander had thrown into the water. At the life ring, Maxwell supported himself and the man until others arrived by boat to help.