Twenty-one Carnegie heroes were recently featured in two publications, highlighting not only geographic parallels, but also the common thread of altruism in each respective state through the recounting of their tales.
The recent spring issue of the Alabama Heritage details the legacy of some of the 137 Alabamians who have performed daring acts of heroism and earned the Carnegie Medal.
The article begins with the story of 22-year-old Shirley C. Wharton, who saved a man from a fatal fall on April 22, 1960, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
In a confused state due to sedatives, the 71-year-old man climbed out of a hospital room window and dropped six feet onto a concrete ledge that was 50 feet above the ground. Wharton checked the patient’s room and noticed the opened window. When she looked outside she was unable to see him but could hear his voice. Knowing full well if she did not act quickly the patient would likely die, she lowered herself from the windowsill and dropped onto the ledge.
In the darkness she pressed her body against the wall and moved more than 100 feet along the ledge to the man. She then took him by the hand and held him against the wall until their presence was discovered by a nurse’s aid. Wharton held the man close to the wall as she walked backward drawing him along the ledge until they were beneath the window. She maintained her hold on the man and raised one hand, which then was grasped by hospital employees who had been summoned. Because the man could not be reached from the window, an orderly climbed out beyond him and moved to him. With one hand held by persons at the window, the orderly and Wharton lifted the man, and those in the room pulled him inside. Mrs. Wharton and the orderly were then aided into the room.
Wharton was one of many exceptional people to come from Alabama, mentioned alongside Carnegie heroes like Charles B. Vines, who had lost his eyesight in combat during the Korean war and managed to save two teenage girls from drowning in 1954.
Other heroes were Joseph A. Callicott, who tragically died in 1984 during his act to save a man from being struck by a moving vehicle, and 12 miners (David L. Blevins, Wendell R. Johnson, Nelson Banks, Clarence H. Boyd, John Wesley Knox, Dennis R. Mobley, Charles J. Nail, Raymond F. Ashworth, Joseph P. Sorah, Terry Milas Stewart, Charles E. Smith, and Joe Riggs) who, in 2001, all died attempting to save Gaston E. Adams from an impending explosion inside of a large coal mine in Brookwood, Alabama.
In a more recent case, the article recognizes the 2022 efforts of James W. Musgrove, Jr., a 79-year-old Air Force veteran who saved a number of church goers from assault in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
At a potluck dinner attended by more than 20 senior citizens in a church parish hall, a 70-year-old man drew a semiautomatic handgun and fired three shots, wounding a man and two women. Seated at a table closer to multiple doors exiting to a patio, Musgrove stood and lifted a banquet chair, which he used as a shield as he ran toward the assailant, who remained seated. Musgrove released the chair and grasped the assailant’s gun hand, forcing the assailant to drop the weapon to the floor. Holding the back of the assailant’s neck as he remained in his chair, Musgrove picked up the gun and struck the assailant’s head with it until he subdued him. Musgrove continued to restrain the assailant in a seated position until police arrived and arrested him. The man and the two women died from their wounds. Musgrove was not injured.
The article included the results of a survey taken by Auburn University at Montgomery students, “Do we need heroes?”
“Their reasons are profound, but they also reveal a troubling view of the world,” the article stated. “‘Heroes often are the light in a dark world,’ wrote one student, while another added that ‘in the negative world we live in today, everyone could use a boost of positivity.’
The other article, from the March 26 edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune, goes in depth and features videos about Carnegie heroes from Minnesota and the risks they took to save others.
The article’s introduction delves into the science of altruism and the mystery of why people would endanger their own life to save another.
“It is very mysterious,” said Abigail Marsh, a Georgetown University psychologist and neuroscientist. “That’s what got me interested in it. It didn’t fit any of the known explanations for human behavior.”
The questions about altruism are not new when it comes to Carnegie heroes. Marsh further explains in a 60 Minutes piece that aired most recently in 2023.
“It really makes sense when you think about how ancient and deep in our brain structures like the amygdala are. And I wouldn’t want to say that the amygdala is where altruism is in the brain,” said Marsh. “It’s one link in a very long chain of events that’s happening that takes us from seeing that somebody’s in danger to actually acting to help them. But we know that it’s definitely an essential link in that chain whether you are a mouse or a rat or a dog or a human it’s performing the same functions at a really deep, fast, subconscious level.”
Among the heroes mentioned in the Star Tribune article was Marena L. Kouba, who saved a man and two children from drowning in 2020; Pierre Johnson, who, in 2012, saved an elderly woman from burning inside of her family’s home; Margaret Hankes, who saved a woman from an attacking dog in 1998; and Anthony S. Johnson, who saved a man from drowning in 2011.
Most recently awarded, in September 2024 was Hao Nguyen, who saved a man from falling off a building on February 13, 2023, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Nguyen is a state prosecutor in St. Paul and was working in his office when he was alerted by a coworker that a man was standing on a snowbank next to a safety wall on the roof of a parking garage. Nguyen ran across the street to the parking garage and took the elevator to the garage roof.
“In my work, I’ve had a chance to experience a lot of people,” Nguyen said. “It just felt like something was really wrong. The elevator opens up and I walk out, and I open the door and I see an Asian male. He’s actually looking over the ledge. I see that he’s standing on the snow bank, and his knees are pretty much parallel with the ledge.”
He approached the man and tried to establish a rapport with him, then pulled him away from the edge of the roof. Nguyen tried to engage in a dialogue with the man in both Vietnamese and English to calm him and get him to leave the roof with him. But the man grew increasingly agitated and ran to jump. Nguyen intercepted the man and grappled with him. The man pressed Nguyen against the wall during the struggle to the point where Nguyen felt he was about to topple over the edge. Nguyen then pushed off the wall for leverage and forced the man back. The two separated momentarily. Nguyen grabbed the man in a bear hug from behind and wrapped his legs around his waist, taking him to the ground. He eventually pinned him with a Jiu jitsu hold until a sheriff’s deputy arrived. Nguyen suffered slight abrasions to his face from elbow strikes that the man had delivered during the struggle, but was otherwise uninjured.
In the 121 years of the Hero Fund’s history, 113 people from Minnesota have received the Carnegie Medal and have come from many different walks of life.
Both articles identify just how rare it is for people to be recognized with the Carnegie Medal for over a century, while at the same time common for some people to have an innate need to help others. Even though these states are hundreds of miles apart, there is a similar spirit and humanity that exists within all of us.
The Alabama Heritage article ends with a quote by tennis player Arthur Ashe on what it truly means to be a hero and the unselfish nature that comes with the title.
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”