DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250365

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SMITHFIELD                        LENGTH:   85 lines

THE TALE OF A HERO CARNEGIE GROUP HONORS SMITHFIELD SAMARITAN

Edward Shorter ministers to troubled souls and flat tires.

So on a cool September evening drive over the James River Bridge, the 46-year-old Virginia Power maintenance planner pulled over to help a woman, who had parked on the shoulder, as she stared out over the dusky water.

She climbed over the guardrail and leaped.

Shorter followed.

Through a 10-minute ordeal of stiff currents and unsinkable spirits, Shorter and the distraught 52-year-old woman were rescued by a fishing boat.

Shorter was honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund of Pittsburgh last week for his valor on Sept. 3, 1996. The award includes $3,000 and a medal.

``I'm an average guy,'' said Shorter, a single parent with two daughters and a 21-month old grandson.

Then, why?

``The thing she needed to see was that somebody cared,'' he explained.

Founded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1904, the fund honors between 90 and 100 people each year, a Carnegie spokesman said. The organization recognizes selfless acts of heroism performed by strangers.

And with that recognition comes phone calls from television talk shows. Producers from the Maury Povich Show in New York tried to arrange a reunion program, couching victims with rescuers.

After consulting with her family and doctors, the woman, who has moved out of state from Hampton, declined the day-time invitation.

Several months before the rescue, Shorter had bought a tire iron and jack to help stranded motorists. After an intensive Bible-study course, he thought, ``Hey, why don't I try to be a Good Samaritan?''

While he fixed flats and mused over hissing radiators, he brought news of his rediscovered Christian faith.

It was about 7 p.m. on Sept. 3 when Shorter pulled over his van to the side of the James River Bridge.

The woman was by the guardrail. Just weeks earlier, her husband of 35 years had died of cancer.

She dove off the span about two miles from shore, and Shorter thought: ``She's going to bob up one time, and I'm going to get one chance to save her.''

He was never trained as a lifeguard, although he faithfully swims laps in his backyard pool. He dived 20 feet into the tidal waters.

The current rushed them out past the pylons. Shorter swam up and grabbed the woman, who screamed to let her drown.

They drifted downstream.

``She couldn't swim, but she couldn't sink, either,'' he said.

Onlookers from the bridge tossed a life ring into the water. Shorter figured it was his only chance to save them both.

``You're going to drown, she's going to drown,'' Shorter remembered thinking, ``and you're going to look like a fool.''

He tugged a hard backstroke into the current, toward the life ring. Just 10 more yards, he thought. He breathed deep and stroked harder. He looked back.

The ring was 15 yards away, roped to the bridge as the current pushed against him. He called out a prayer, and struggled to stay afloat.

Three fishermen in a small, aluminum boat pulled near. They took the woman aboard, then hauled the exhausted Shorter out of the water.

``I could not paddle another lick,'' he said.

Shorter's neighbor, Lt. Tom Gibbons of the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Department, was called to the scene that night, and drove the soaked, shivering hero home.

Gibbons described Shorter as a quiet, unassuming man.

``I think Ed was surprised that he did it,'' he said.

Gibbons, a retired Army major who served three tours in Vietnam, thought Shorter's valor was so exceptional that he nominated Shorter for the Carnegie award.

``These kind of things don't happen very often,'' he said.

``The thing she needed to see was that somebody cared,'' said Shorter, who visited the woman in the hospital three days later. ``Getting her out of the water was a lot easier than getting her out of despair.''

Even after the woman moved to be closer to her family, Shorter talks with her occasionally. He recently received a letter from her thanking him, again.

Shorter was troubled when he dove into the water, too. His 25-year marriage was dissolving, a loss that still bothers him.

``I have grown spiritually,'' he said. ``It's a gift.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Edward Shorter rescued a woman who jumped off the James River Bridge

a year ago. They still keep in touch. KEYWORDS: RESCUE HERO

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