Upper Township attorney rescued four caught in rip current in Ocean City in 2024
OCEAN CITY — He didn’t want to do it, almost didn’t, but his family made him because, after all, receiving the highest civilian award in the country is worth a little discomfort.
Upper Township attorney Brandon Walcott has been lauded as a hero locally and now will be recognized nationally for his life-saving efforts on an Ocean City beach. Walcott, who rescued a family of four from drowning, recently was informed that he is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.
“I am a little shocked, to be honest,” Walcott told the Sentinel.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awards the Carnegie Medal to individuals in the United States and Canada who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others. Business leader Andrew Carnegie set up the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in 1904 to present the awards.
Walcott said he was informed last week that he would receive the medal at a ceremony with his family and high-ranking state and federal politicians.
He said he was reluctant to accept the award.
“This was something I was pretty set on not doing. I don’t want recognition, and it’s not an appropriate thing to do to seek a medal for pulling people out of the water in my hometown,” Walcott said.
The call followed an in-depth investigation that involved reading the police report and interviewing those rescued, witnesses and the subject. It took almost a year, he said, but partially because he vacillated over accepting the honor.
“It was the most intense investigation that I have been through,” he said, adding that he does not know who nominated him for the award.
Walcott said the commission scours newspapers and online news reports and sometimes nominates individuals itself. The Sentinel wrote about Walcott back in July 2024 after the rescue. (See story online at https://ocnjsentinel.com/upper-township-man-pulls-family-from-o-c-riptide/.)
He is still a reluctant recipient.
“It’s not any kind of thing I’m seeking out. Originally I didn’t move forward with it. I hemmed and hawed about moving forward for about eight months,” he said. “You do the right thing when you need to instead of looking for credit on the back end. It’s how I conduct my life, to be totally honest.”
Walcott said he and his wife, Gillian, a first-grade teacher at Upper Township Primary School, have four “Walcott Rules” that their children — Madeline, 10, and Grant, 8 — say every day: 1) Stick up for yourself; 2) Stick up for others; 3) Tell the truth; and 4) Be cool.
“We apply those rules to just about everything,” Walcott said. “The kids were really asking questions, and I just said it’s one of our rules, stick up for other people. When people are in trouble, you help.”
He continued to be humble.
“I’m still operating as this is something that doesn’t need to be limelighted. I’m honored to get this award but by no means does it make me feel any different,” he said.
Walcott was enjoying some time on the beach July 19, 2024, with his wife when he spotted the family struggling in the ocean and launched into action to save them.
Tom Stevens, who was on the beach with his wife, witnessed the events.
“A woman and her three children were caught in a riptide and taken straight out to the ocean. Brandon jumped in and saved the youngest boy first, who was approximately 20 yards out in the ocean, then jumped right back in and saved the remaining people, bringing all back to shore safely,” he told the Sentinel via email, noting the remaining three were about 30 to 40 yards out screaming for help.
Stevens said emergency responders arrived and everyone was congratulating Walcott but that he was interested only in the health and safety of the family he had saved.
“Everyone on 37th Street beach last night honestly was in awe of Brandon. Those people surely would have died had Brandon not jumped in,” Stevens wrote.
“It was a scary situation,” Walcott said at the time, noting the children ranged in age from about 5 to 17 and the woman was in her 40s or 50s. “I saw the youngest boy go under water, jumped in, got him out and went right back in for the remaining three.”
“It almost looked calm but I realized it was pulling at an angle. The people were panicking and swimming right into the riptide, wasting their energy, and that’s the opposite of what you should do,” he said. “I told them to stop swimming and I’ll come back and get you.”
The Upper Township resident said one girl was submerged and that he had to dive down to get her.
“I made sure she was conscious and told the others to stop fighting the current. She fought me the whole time and I had to grip her by the shirt. I got her to safety and went back for the other two,” he said.
Walcott said he knew from growing up at the shore and surfing that the conditions were ripe for a riptide.
He said he was just in the right place at the right time.
“I’m glad that I was there,” he said. “If I had to do it all over again I would.”
The Rotary Club of Ocean City-Upper Township presented Walcott with its 2024 Upper Township Citizen of the Year award for his deeds.
“Rotary’s motto is ‘service above self,’ and it is that motto that brings us here this evening to honor our selected Brandon D. Walcott,” Selection Committee Chairman Ralph Cooper said during the award presentation Nov. 25, 2024, outside Township Hall.
The Carnegie Medal is a 3-inch bronze medal awarded to recipient. Walcott said he would donate the money to the school district.
Asked about his advice for those thinking of swimming after hours, he replied, “Don’t do it.”
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff