Men of mettle

Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 | 7:38 a.m.

In addition to Steven Glenn and Clifton Anthony, 11 other Southern Nevadans have been awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism since it was established in 1904. The ages and hometowns are those at the time of their acts of heroism. In all, 20 Nevadans have won the medal. Here are the other local honorees:

* Stephen Cannon, 28, of Las Vegas, helped rescue Nevada Highway Patrolman Randy Postma on May 26, 1975, after a traffic violator took the 21-year-old patrolman's gun and fired five shots, one of which grazed Postma's head. Cannon grappled with the assailant and sent him fleeing.

* Mary Michelle Chipman, 36, of Las Vegas, helped rescue 15-year-old Richard Franklin Jr., from burning car after a highway rollover in San Bernardino, Calif., on Oct. 18, 1998.

* Debbra Cleveland, 44, of Las Vegas, also helped rescue Franklin.

* Paul Duckworth, 35, of Las Vegas, a reactor operations supervisor, assisted in rescue efforts following an explosion at an atomic reactor in Atomic City, Idaho, on Jan. 3, 1961.

* Evangelos Dimotsantos, 43, of Las Vegas, rescued Julie Deperini, 22, and Jason Jones, 24, from a burning vehicle following an interstate highway crash on July 21, 2002.

* Howard Giles II, 12, of Henderson, helped rescue Dana Peterson, 18, from a fall during a climb up a mountain ridge near Las Vegas on Aug. 26, 1954.

* Bailey Le Roy Willoughby, 14, of Henderson helped rescue Peterson.

* William Holsclaw II, 12, of Jean, rescued Brian Holsclaw, 4, and Jimmy Holsclaw, 3, from a fire at the family's mobile home on Feb. 10, 1984, by handing his brothers to their father through a broken window.

* Oliver Hornsby, 20, of Las Vegas, saved Jerald Childers, 39, from suffocation after Childers stumbled into a pit of fuel-oil sludge on Sept. 10, 1952.

* Elinor Plumlee, 28, of Las Vegas, rescued 11-month-old Robert Bajadjieva from a burning apartment on Nov. 2, 1971.

* Ormond Steele, 35, of Las Vegas, assisted in rescuing Norman Fehr from drowning in an incident at Waldport, Ore., on Sept. 21, 1968.

The lives of Las Vegas' recent Carnegie Medal winners Steven Glenn and Clifton Anthony took different paths after they rescued people in unrelated incidents about a year apart.

In December 2002, on his first day on the job as a security guard, Glenn came to the aid of three women who were being attacked by a knife-wielding man at the Clark County Social Service center in Henderson.

Anthony was sleeping before another shift at the Sahara Hotel's casino cage in December 2003 when he was awakened by his next door neighbor at the Ashton Park Apartments, 4441 Escondido St.

Anthony kicked in the door of his neighbor's burning apartment and rescued her then-6-month-old son, who was asleep in a playpen in the smoke-filled living room.

After Glenn's act of heroism, his life was complicated not only by injuries he suffered, including a stab wound in his chest and two herniated discs, but also by a lingering worker's compensation claim and being forced to move into a dilapidated downtown studio apartment because that was all he could afford.

Anthony's life, on the other hand, only got better as he got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Sheila, landed a better-paying job and was awarded a year's free rent from his appreciative landlord.

Despite taking different routes in life, both men were in a similarly good place spiritually when they received word recently that they were selected as recipients of the Carnegie Medal.

Glenn, a 35-year-old native of North Carolina, said enduring some of his worst experiences in recent years helped him become a better person.

"The changes I have gone through have been like a trial by fire," said Glenn, who settled his worker's comp claim, moved into a nice Southeast Clark County apartment and today works at a health club.

"I was an angry person, but I've matured a lot. When I was younger, I was a braggart. I now have no need to brag. I know who I am. I won't be wearing the (Carnegie) medal around my neck, but I also don't carry the big chip on my shoulder that I used to."

As for 45-year-old Anthony, whatever anger he had, he lost a long time ago, while growing up in Chicago's notorious Cabrini Green public housing project and surviving rampant poverty and crime in a caring household.

As a child, Anthony recalled stealing a package of Oreo cookies from a store and getting spanked by his single mom and his grandfather, a retired police officer, after they learned about the theft.

"I never stole anything again," he said, crediting his family and strong belief in God for his good moral values.

Anthony, who has never met Glenn, said that since initially being recognized for his heroic act in news accounts following the fire, "I was just rewarded and blessed. The phrase 'no good deed goes unpunished' did not apply to me.

"I believe that the good you do for others comes back to you in many ways."

These days he has a better job, for example, driving a Nevada Ready Mix cement truck, he said.

Each of the big men -- Glenn is 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, and Anthony is 6-foot-6, 255 pounds -- said he didn't stop to think before taking action.

"I get asked that question all the time by the news media and all I can say is that there was no thought," Glenn said. "If you stop to think about it you would not take on a crazed man with three knives when you are unarmed.

"I acted because that is in my nature. He attacked those who were most defenseless. People who attack the weak disgust me. My brain shut down and I simply did what I had to do to stop him."

Anthony, too, said his actions were automatic.

"I think I did what any other person would -- or should -- do," said the Las Vegas resident of eight years who was not injured while rescuing the child.

"If it were my stepkids in there, I would hope that someone would have acted. When the mother banged on my door and said, 'Save my baby!,' I didn't stop to think about it. I just reacted and did it."

Jeff Dooley, spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Medal Hero Fund, said many of the nearly 9,000 people who have received the award during its 101-year history have said similar things.

"Andrew Carnegie recognized that heroic activity is impulsive," Dooley said. "In most instances where an act of heroism occurs, a split-second decision is made."

Carnegie was a millionaire industrialist who died in 1919 at age 83. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission meets five times each year to choose heroes from a field of nominees from newspaper clippings, letters or tips to its Web site. Recipients or their survivors get a citation, a bronze medal and $3,500 each.

While Glenn does not know who nominated him, Anthony learned last week that it was his landlord, Barbara Holland of H & L Realty Management Company, which operates Ashton Park, where Anthony still resides.

"This is a quiet, gentle man who did something extraordinary," Holland said. "I was ecstatic when I learned he won the medal because Clifton is a person who went the distance and deserves to be recognized.

"Clifton Anthony is a person I would want living next door to me, my daughters and my mom."

Both Glenn and Anthony display their heroism certificates in glass-covered frames on their living room home entertainment centers, where they say they will put their Carnegie medals, which are expected to arrive in early November.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.

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