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Submitted: 6/14/06 • Approved: 6/14/06 • Last Updated: 2/16/13 • R8054-G0-S3
Carl Sporwien-Sporven
Dec. 26, 1878 - Dec. 7, 1955
As you can see by the spelling, the last name was originally Sporwien. Carl was born in Hagenau, East Prussia, Germany, and immigrated to the US in 1893 with his parents and 2 brothers & 2 sisters. His fahter was Friedrich Carl "Fritz" SPORWIEN Sr, and his mother was Wilhelmine G GRUHN. He was married Jan. 24, 1903 in Manning, Carroll Cnty, IA to Wilhelmine Caroline RUTZ, her parents also natives of Germany.
Grandpa was a recipient of the Carnegie Hero Award.
Commemorative Medal A Century of Heroes Book Newsletter, Issue 1, 2005
CARL A. SPORVEN Bellevue, Nebraska
Carl A. Sporven saved George W. Vinson and Paul E. Brown respectively from burning, Saint Columbans, Nebraska, July 7, 1948. An airplane in which Vinson, 29, flight test engineer, and Brown, 29, military pilot, were flying crashed and turned over, the impact ripping off the nose of the fuselage and one nacelle and partly embedding the plexiglass canopy of the cockpit in the earth. Dense smoke rose from the broken nacelle and the wing near the cockpit. Vinson and Brown freed themselves from their safety-belts and parachute gear, and Vinson broke a small window in the canopy on the side away from the smoke. Sporven, 70, farmer, ran to that side; and unable to break the plexiglass by pulling on the window edges from a kneeling position, he braced his knees against the fuselage at the rear of the canopy and snapped off a piece of plexiglass with a hard pull. He enlarged the opening by breaking off fragments and scraping earth away from the embedded part of the canopy. Gusts of flame by then rose about seven feet in the smoke. Vinson extended his arms through the opening, and Sporven pulled him out. Both then pulled Brown out. All ran away from the airplane, at which a series of explosions started two minutes later; and it was destroyed. Each man sustained a minor laceration, but none was burned. 41433-3572
(c) 1996-2005 Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Site designed by Mullen. Last Updated: Mar 19, 2005.
Submitted by Craig & Nancy Sporven Poole, Granddaughter, Omaha, Ne.
Contributed on 6/14/06 by cpoole
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Record #: 8054