A prestigious national hero award is being given to a 31-year-old Minnesotan who jumped into a channel near Detroit Lakes and saved his 3-year-old son only to lose his own life in the water.
Christopher F.N. Schultz, of Frazee, is among 17 people in the United States and Canada who are latest recipients of the Carnegie Medal "for risking their lives for others in life-threatening peril," the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced this week.
The fund, which also awards $5,500 to each person honored or their survivors, detailed Schultz's heroics during the evening of June 15, 2019.
The boy, Ashton, fell from a bridge into the 20-foot-deep channel. Schultz leapt in and held the boy above the surface while swimming toward shore 80 feet away.
As Schultz struggled, a friend jumped in and took Ashton the rest of the way.
However, Schultz went under. Police and a dive team pulled Schultz's body from the water about 45 minutes later.
The area around the channel is popular for swimming and fishing, and it draws daredevils to jump off the span, called Long Bridge, which separates Detroit Lake from Deadshot Lake.
In an interview with the Star Tribune the day after the incident, Ryan Olson described his brother as a "phenomenal swimmer." However, it was a chilly night and his clothes likely became too heavy and weighed him down, Olson said.
In addition to Ashton, Schultz had three other children: Addie, a twin to Ashton, as well as sons Xzavier, now 6, and Liam, now 3.
"That man cared more about his kids than anyone else I've ever met," said Olson, who lives in Eagan. "He would jump after anybody's kids. The man wore his heart on his sleeve and gave everyone a piece of it."
Also among this round's recipients is journalist Wendi Winters, who while working at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., in June 2018 grabbed two plastic bins and charged at a gunman who had forced his way into the newsroom. The 65-year-old Winters was shot and killed.
A total of 10,202 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based fund's inception in 1904. The recipients or their survivors will also receive a financial grant.
Since the fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, more than $42 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and continuing assistance.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
