John Joseph Rybas helped to save Celeste M. Altimari from drowning, Newtown, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1973. Miss Altimari, 18, and a young man called for help as they clung to their rubber raft, which was lodged against a low dam in Neshaminy Creek and was 25 feet from the bank. Rybas, 21, caterer, walked out on the dam and then jumped into the turbulent boil of water below it. He swam 15 feet, reached Miss Altimari, and boosted her into the raft. As others on the dam prepared to tow the raft to the bank, Rybas wan submerged a number of times in the boil of water. He made his way safely back to the bank by swimming beneath the turbulence. Others towed the raft, with Miss Altimari in it and the young man clinging to it, to the bank
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