Paul J. Lessard

Paul J. Lessard helped to save Ella M. Bowman from drowning, High Point, North Carolina, April 16, 1993. Ms. Bowman, 62, was the driver of a station wagon that was washed from a flooded highway into an adjacent creek before dawn. Swollen by heavy rain, the creek was 12 feet deep, its current fast, and the water, muddy. Lessard, 35, sales manager, drove upon the scene, where a man who had swum out to the car told him to get something with which to break a window of the car. Lessard obtained a hammer from a nearby residence and swam to the car with it. After mounting the submerged rear bumper of the sinking car, he broke out the back window with the hammer. Lessard and the other man then secured a hold on Ms. Bowman and, as the car submerged completely, took her back to the bank, then to the nearby house. Ms. Bowman was treated at the hospital for minor injuries, from which she recovered. Lessard recovered from cuts to his hands.