Man, 75, Gets Boy Scout Medal in 59-Year Delay

MANKATO, Minn. —  Fifty-nine years after he saved a friend from drowning, Ross Heilman received a Boy Scout Medal of Honor.

Heilman, at age 16, pulled Kenneth Foster from a water-filled gravel pit in 1932 and used artificial respiration to revive him.

The Boy Scouts’ national office rejected him for the medal because his Depression-era troop was unable to pay its national dues. But on Tuesday, the organization made amends to the retired power company worker, who is now 75.

Foster died in 1988. His widow, Lyda, sent Heilman a letter, saying the couple “had a wonderful 33 years together.”