The family of Carnegie Hero Davis Ilan Zinsenheim accepted the posthumously awarded Carnegie Medal, presented by volunteer presenter Charles S. Harris on April 22, 2018, in Marietta, Ga. Pictured, from left, are Penny and Steve Zinsenheim with Harris.
On May 10, 2016 in Lake Toxaway, N.C., 22-year-old college student of Marietta, Zinsenheim died attempting to save his friend from falling to the base of a waterfall. The two were walking on the rocks in a streambed while hiking. The man fell and slid over the brink to a ledge partway down. Zinsenheim yelled out and ran after him until he, too, lost his footing and slid over the edge.
“Truly, what is a hero? A hero is a person that has saved or attempted to save another person with no real thought of the consequences of his actions upon himself. Davis Ilan Zinsenheim definitely fills the shoes of a true hero in every sense of the word. He truly gave his all for another,” said Harris during the presentation.
Harris is a past recipient of the Carnegie Medal, for a 1962 water rescue of two girls who were in the rear seat of a coupe that plunged into Big Spring Creek in Guntersville, Ala.
Photo by Teresa Harris.
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