The Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 18 civilians, including a father who died attempting to save his son from a burning home and a husband who died trying to save his wife struggling to stay afloat in the Long Island Sound. 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 fourth and final award announcement for 2023.
Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Among those saved by this quarter’s Carnegie Medal recipients were ten children, including three children trapped in a burning apartment in Newport Beach, California, and three children trapped in a burning SUV in Emporia, Kansas.
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 10,405 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904.
Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 119 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, nearly $45 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
The awardees are:
Marvin D. Argueta R., Flemington, New Jersey
F. Daniel Calix A., Flemington, New Jersey
Franklin G. Calix A., Flemington, New Jersey
Scott Kilburn, deceased, Waverly, Tennessee
Pedro Perez, Springfield, Massachusetts
Alan H. Mackie, Grand Valley, Ontario
Benjamin Ramsay, Seattle
Fairuz Jane Schlecht, Newport Beach, California
Tu Anh Tran, Lincoln, Nebraska
Thomas Lee Hawk, deceased, Bostwick, Georgia
Judy Arroyo, Long Beach, New York
Ryan Pasborg, Rock Springs, Wyoming
Thomas Elbrecht, South Salt Lake, Utah
Sean L. James, Fate, Texas
Adem Qorri, deceased, New Port Richey, Florida
John Chase, Denver
Heath Martin, Springboro, Ohio
Mauricio Rodas-García, deceased, Norwalk, Connecticut
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.