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

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Associated Press

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.

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

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