A 13-year-old boy was on a boat outing when he and several others left the boat to wade on a nearby sandbar. The boat drifted away from the sandbar and the boy panicked, leaving the sandbar and swimming toward the boat on April 26, 2020. He struggled in water about 8 feet deep. On the boat, Carl J. Robinette II, a 48-year-old internet sales and marketing manager of Hartsville, South Carolina, saw the boy struggling, dove into the water, and swam to him. Robinette grasped the boy and held him so his head remained above water while moving toward the sandbar. Another man, who held a life vest in front of him, swam to the pair and helped the boy grasp the life vest and get back to the boat. By then, Robinette had submerged. Department of Natural Resources divers recovered Robinette’s body the next day, near where he submerged, in about 8 feet of water. He had drowned.

Read more from the Carnegie Hero Fund.