 Ex-deputy honored 32
years later
BY HURST LAVIANA
The
Wichita Eagle
Udall Chief of Police John Adams, Jr. ,left, congratulates former
Cowley County Sheriff's Deputy William "Bill" Stroud a a
presentation at St. Francis Hospital on Friday Nov. 22, 2007. Stroud
saved a family from an icy pond 32 years ago and received a
certificate of outstanding contribution, signed by Gov. Kathleen
Sebelius along with an honorary title of Udall Chief of Police.
Cowley County sheriff's Deputy Bill Stroud was dispatched to
an accident on U.S. 160 about five miles east of Winfield on March 9, 1975.
When he arrived, he found a car that had skidded off the
slushy highway before sinking into a farm pond about 20 feet from the bank. Two
children and three adults were standing on the roof, which was eight inches
underwater.
"When I seen those two kids, something clicked," Stroud said
Friday. "There were two kids and three other people in the car that needed help.
That's all I saw. People who needed help."
More than 32 years after rescuing those people, Stroud was
honored Friday with a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions
signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. He also was made an honorary police chief in
the city of Udall, where he was working as town marshal when the accident
occurred.
Both awards were presented at Via Christi Regional Medical
Center-St. Francis
Campus, where Stroud has been staying as he enters the final
stages of terminal cancer. About two dozen friends, relatives and law
enforcement officers attended the ceremony.
Stroud's daughter-in-law, Kim Stroud, said she began looking
for ways to honor him this year after she came across a Wichita Eagle article
that detailed the rescue.
"My father-in-law had been diagnosed with cancer, and time was
not on our side," she said.
The newspaper account said the car skidded off U.S. 160, went
down a steep embankment, crashed through a barbed-wire fence and sank in the
middle of the pond.
One of the men in the car swam for help, the article said,
while the other five occupants, including a 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl,
climbed out a rear door and waited on the roof for help.
Stroud, who made three trips into the pond that day, was later
treated for exposure and exhaustion at a hospital in Winfield. While there, he
said, the accident victims stopped by his room to say thank you.
"To a police officer, that's two mighty big words," he said.
Stroud, 66, eventually left law enforcement to pursue a career
at Boeing. He was nearly speechless when presented the awards.
"I'll be dogged," he said as three television cameras recorded
the event. "Jiminy Christmas.... It's unbelievable."
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