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Medals go to humble lifesaver
(by Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor - August 05, 2010)
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 Alex Glass, a Madison County native now living in North Carolina, saved two women from drowning last year.
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 Boy Scouts of America awarded glass with the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms, the organization's highest honor for lifesaving.
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 This summer, the Carnegie Hero Fund named Glass one of its 2010 medal winners.
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A Madison County native and Eagle Scout is now a nationally recognized hero.
Alex Glass, a resident of North Carolina, grew up in Plumwood and graduated from Jonathan Alder High School in 1993. On Memorial Day 2009, he swam into crashing waves in the Atlantic Ocean to save the lives of two people.
In recognition of his efforts, the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund has named Glass a recipient of the 2010 Carnegie Medal, an award reserved for civilians who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
Last fall, Glass also received the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms, the Boy Scouts of America’s highest award for lifesaving. Only 16 such medals were awarded in 2009.
A humble man, Glass, appreciates the recognition but gives the credit to a higher power.
“I believe in God, and I think somehow His hand was in this whole thing,” he said from his home in Newport, N.C., where he works as an eighth-grade history and science teacher and lives with his wife, Mary Helen, and sons, Ian, 6, and Cooper, 3.
His Scout training played a big part in the rescue, too. A Scoutmaster with Troop 412 in Newport, Glass got his start in Scouting as a member of Troop 102, affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church of London.
“We took him to Scouts starting when he was about three-foot high and kept taking him every year,” said Glass’s father, John, who lives in Plumwood. Glass’s mother, Rebecca, who lives in North Carolina, always made sure he got to campouts and other Scouting activities.
As a Scout, Glass learned how to swim and became certified as a lifeguard. He also earned Red Cross certification while a student at Ohio Northern University. He said he had never put the training to practical use, but he remembered it last summer when it counted most.
The Rescue
On May 25, 2009, Glass and his family were enjoying Memorial Day weekend at Cape Lookout off the coast of North Carolina.
“Me, my oldest boy and the other family’s boy were on the ocean side playing in the surf when I heard someone yelling for help,” Glass recounted. “It was a mother who said her two girls were out in the water and in trouble.”
When he saw that there was no other option than to swim out, Glass headed into the ocean fully clothed, with a swirl of thoughts running through his mind.
“I knew how to tow somebody and I’m a decent swimmer, so I wasn’t worried about going out there,” he said, but he also thought about the father of one of his students who died a couple of years before trying to rescue two boys caught in a rip current at a state park.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, though, if I did nothing and they drowned. I didn’t really have a choice,” Glass said.
The girls were about a football field’s length off shore. Upon reaching them, Glass was surprised to discover they were actually adults. SuAnna Willis was 23 at the time; Karrissa Willis was 19.
“There was a guy trying to help the first girl, SuAnna. They told me to go on to the second girl, the younger one, Karrissa, who was further out,” Glass said. “The waves were big and she was exhausted.”
He spun Karrissa around and put her in the cross-chest tow position. As he headed back to shore, he told her when to breathe between waves.
He then came upon SuAnna and saw that her rescuer was gone. She was struggling to keep her head above water.
“When I realized I had two people to get back, that was scary. I wasn’t trained to bring in two people at one time,” Glass said.
SuAnna grabbed her sister’s leg and wasn’t about to let go. After towing both women several feet, Glass stumbled on a sandbar.
“It was a blessing because we needed a breather,” said Glass. There, he talked to the girls and calmed them down. When the waves slacked off some, he towed them into shore. The young man, Karrissa’s boyfriend, had made it to the beach, too.
SuAnna ended up spending the night in a hospital, where she was given an IV and oxygen. Glass and his family stopped at the hospital on their way home and found out both sisters were going to be fine.
“Afterwards, I just thought, ‘Wow, that was quick.’ It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, that led to action and getting it done. Then, it was over,” Glass said.
In a statement he made after the rescue, Glass wrote, “If there’s any time in my life that I felt like I was somewhere for a reason, it was then.”
He didn’t see SuAnna and Karrissa or their parents again until November when he was surprised with the Honor Medal at what he thought was a mock court of honor at a roundtable Scout meeting.
“My wife bought me a new pair of Scout pants right before it. That should’ve tipped me off,” Glass said, laughing.
He and his family have kept in touch with the Willis family, finding a common bond through their faiths.
SuAnna has said of Glass, “Above everything, the one thing that stays fresh in my mind is the unselfishness of another person and his willingness to risk his life to save someone else, and because of this, I am alive.”
Hometown Words of Praise
Ray Chamberlain, a Lake Choctaw resident, was assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 102 in London when Glass was moving through the Scouting ranks. He remembers Glass as a quiet, dedicated student and Scout. He says Glass’s actions last Memorial Day fit him.
“He’s always been that kind of person, the kind of guy who would do it without thinking,” Chamberlain said of the lifesaving effort.
Keith Paul was Glass’s Scoutmaster when he earned his Eagle in London. Paul now lives in Phoenix.
He said, “Alex was always somewhat special in terms of self knowledge, awareness of others, focus, accountability, and drive. I was not in the least bit surprised at Alex’s response to the plight of the girls in the water.”
He continued, “Hard times and difficulties always create men to meet the challenges. Alex has risen to a major challenge and will continue to offer so much more to the world as an eighth grade teacher, Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, and whatever future endeavors he attempts.”
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