(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Pete Rosengren’s wife Maura, as well as their three sons, accepted the Carnegie Hero Medal on Tuesday at the July Kane County Board meeting.
It was March 2021 when Pete Rosengren, who was 42 years old, went into the Gulf of Mexico to try to rescue a 9-year-old boy who was having trouble in the rough water.
The boy was eventually rescued and lived. Rosengren did not make it.
Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke called Rosengren a model of excellence.
“This is a very tragic event in our community, and one we felt very bad about,” Schielke said. “To have his family here today to receive this — this is a high honor in the world of the Carnegie Foundation coming forth and citing this particular example.”
Over the past 118 years, the Carnegie Hero Commission has awarded more than $40 million to the surviving family members of people who’ve risked their own lives to save others.
Recipients of the Carnegie Hero Medal receive a financial grant.
“The life that he lived really spoke to making this world a much better place for us all to live in,” Schielke said. “So I’m glad Carnegie recognizes Pete because he really did make a difference in making our world a greater and grander place.”
Pete Rosengren is buried in a cemetery overlooking a baseball field where one of his sons has already played, and where another will play for the next couple of years.
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