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Post by Chuck McCue on May 6, 2022 15:35:48 GMT -5
Mr. Kirkpatrick was one hell of a volunteer lifeguard!
E. Vann Kirkpatrick, a Jacksonville Beach letter carrier, in the summer of 1963 ran and swam through the surf to rescue three young people caught in a run-out. He was awarded a bronze medal by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in Pittsburgh.
Kirkpatrick, who lived at 902 N. 4th St., also received a cash award of $750 from the commission, established in 1904 by Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate and philanthropist.
Kirkpatrick was driving his mail scooter along Ocean Avenue at 34th Avenue South on June 6, 1963, making his normal deliveries.
“After spending 10 years as a surf man, I guess you just naturally glance out at the ocean every chance you get,” Kirkpatrick said at the time.
“I saw those three heads bobbing out there and I figured I had better investigate.
“By the time I got to the beach, they were screaming and I knew they were caught in a run-out. I could recognize the conditions,” he said.
The 50-year-old former lifeguard stripped to his shorts, waded and swam 100 feet through breakers three feet high, then swam 150 feet further to one of the victims, 15-year-olf Judith Hines from Collingdale, Pa.
Kirkpatrick towed her to 15-year-old Michael Jones and 15-year-old Jeffery Jones, both of 3031 New Berlin Road.
The mailman then battled the current 300 feet with the trio in tow until they were able to wade to the beach.
Kirkpatrick also received the Postmaster General Citation, a Red Cross certificate of merit signed by President John F. Kennedy and commendations from the mayor and City Council of Jacksonville Beach.
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