When he was growing up on Long Beach Island, a young Bob Selfridge’s room was scattered with books, all with tattered pages and broken spines, about courage and heroism that told stories of shipwrecks, lifesavers and survivors. In August 2022, life imitated art and Selfridge found himself cast in the role as hero with an ending that includes being the 707th American to receive one of the nation’s oldest awards for heroism.

“Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself as a player in such a story.