Positivity: Remembering Frank Kendrick, a Hero Dozens of Times Over
Original publication: September 11, 2007
To Kay Kendrick, today is “Heroes Day.”
“That’s what I call Sept. 11,” she said. There are two reasons for this, but only one is obvious.
Like all Americans, Kay will reflect on the brave sacrifices made by New York City firefighters and police officers who responded to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on that late summer morning six years ago.
But she will also be thinking about her husband, Frank, who, as it happened, died in the act of saving a life exactly one year later, on the anniversary of Sept. 11. Ever since, the day has held intensely personal, as well as patriotic, meaning to Kay Kendrick.
Capt. Frank Kendrick was the Yonkers dock master and member of the U.S. Volunteer Life-Saving Corps, who for nearly a half-century kept vigil from his post at the historic Yonkers Pier on the Hudson River.
Estimates are that he pulled between 25 and 40 people out of the river after they fell, or jumped, in. Frank never kept count of the lives he saved, but Kay, who witnessed each and every rescue, puts the number at 30.
Bob Walters, a friend of the Kendricks, remembered how Frank once even saved a sea gull that was entangled in a fishing line. All life was precious to Frank.
When I first met Frank about eight years ago, we talked about his exploits and love for the Life-Saving Corps. His rescues, he told me, were always made from a boat. He never went into the water and rarely got wet. Using a life ring and his big, brawny arms, Frank invariably pulled the victims to safety before they could disappear under the waves. The tough, old salt told me he didn’t consider himself a hero. He was just doing his job.
“I know he said that,” Kay recalled. “But he was my hero.”
The morning of Sept. 11, 2002, was clear, but the Hudson was wind-whipped. “The water was churning and it was treacherous,” Kay remembered.
No one was around at the pier except Frank, Kay and a mysterious young woman. Kay said the woman’s behavior instantly made her anxious. She had seen the body language of would-be suicides so many times before.
“She went out to the pier and was just standing by the railing, looking at the water,” Kay said of the woman “And the wind was blowing and blowing. I just had the feeling she was going to do something. I called Frank on my walkie-talkie. He said, ‘All right, just keep an eye on her.’ He said, ‘I’ll be right over.’ “
Kay momentarily turned her back on the woman to see if Frank was coming.
“And then I heard the scream for help,” Kay recalled. “She climbed over the rail, because it’s a high rail. She had went in.”
By the time Frank arrived, it was too late to get a boat. He knew that this time he would have to jump into the river and swim. “I have to go in,” he told Kay.
Carrying a life ring attached to a rope, Frank struggled through the choppy water and reached the woman, who clung to him. At one point, Kay could see the water going over Frank’s head. She desperately radioed a Mayday.
Rescuers got there in a Yonkers Fire Department patrol boat and pulled the two out of the river. The woman was OK. But the stress was too much for Frank’s heart and he died. He was 71 years old. …..
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