Ross M. Lynch, Jr.

Ross M. Lynch, Jr., helped to save Carla A. Blumberg from drowning, McQueeney, Texas, June 14, 1967. When flames erupted on her inboard motorboat 400 feet from the nearest bank of a lake, Miss Blumberg, 20, suffered serious burns while the other young woman aboard sustained far lighter burns. Excellent swimmers, both jumped overboard into water 25 feet deep. Because of her burns, Miss Blumberg was unable to swim, but she kept herself afloat as the wind moved the burning boat slowly away from her. Lynch, 23, insurance underwriter, and Frank B. Roberts III, both experienced boat handlers boarded a motorboat at the opposite bank and proceeded to the area. The other young woman, who had swum some distance from the burning boat, told them she was all right and urged them to help Miss Blumberg. Lynch piloted his boat to a position between the flaming craft and Miss Blumberg. On the burning boat, which then was 17 feet from Lynch’s craft, the flames were five to eight feet high. Heat was intense. Both Lynch and Roberts feared an explosion of the flaming craft as they reached over the side of their boat and drew Miss Blumberg aboard. Lynch was moving his craft away from the area of the burning boat when another motorboat arrived and picked up the other young woman. Miss Blumberg was hospitalized and recovered from her burns.