Carnegie Hero Robert Cody Moore was presented with the Carnegie Medal during a Bellaire, Texas, city council meeting held Sept. 18, 2023, in Bellaire’s city hall.
Moore was having dinner with family and friends on New Year’s Eve 2021, when a car entered the 68-degree Houston Ship Channel nearby. Moore jumped from a ferry landing into the water 8 feet below. The driver exited the car, and Moore held him to his chest, keeping them both afloat. He swam back to the ferry landing, but there was no way for him to exit the water nor was there anything to grasp to stay afloat, so he swam to a nearby buoy, holding to its tether.
Others in Moore’s party tied together shirts to craft a lifeline and threw one end of it into the water from the ferry landing. Moore towed the man back to the lifeline and held to it, while those on land dragged them to a point where they could pull the man out of the water.
Bellaire Mayor Andrew S. Friedberg presented the medal to Moore with a proclamation from the city of Bellaire.
“The city of Bellaire, Texas, is honored to present the medal to Mr. Moore on the commission’s behalf,” Friedberg said at the meeting. “By this proclamation (Bellaire officials) express our pride and appreciation as we join him in celebrating this significant honor.”
Emotional from the memory of the rescue, Moore cleared his throat before offering a few words of thanks.
“First of all I was praying the entire time I was in the water. Thank you God for,” Moore paused and cleared his throat again before continuing, “Protecting me. My kids were watching. My wife was watching.”
He went on to thank his community’s first responders.
“I know that our first-responders put themselves in this kind of harm every day. And I appreciate it a lot more now because accidents and bad decisions make for dangerous situations. So I appreciate what they do for our community, and be careful out there,” he said.