Investigators with the Connecticut State Police never met Richard Herron, an 83-year-old Elkton-area resident killed in a freak accident near Hartford, Conn., early Monday.
But his last act on this earth certainly gave them a glimpse into his character, judging by the title of the press release issued by that agency after Herron died.
"Good Samaritan succumbed to injuries," the media alert read.
That's exactly how Herron and his two adults sons – Tom and Larry – were conducting themselves at about 3 a.m. Monday, when they came to the aid of a woman who was trapped inside her overturned Ford Explorer along a dark stretch of I-84 after she lost control of the SUV and rolled it, police said.
Herron and his sons, who were traveling to Maine for a moose-hunting trip that they started planning last Thanksgiving, moved the slightly injured woman to the safety of their Chevrolet pickup truck parked in the left lane, police added.
Seconds later, while still in the road, Herron and his sons jumped atop a Jersey barrier to evade an oncoming tractor-trailer – and the patriarch lost his footing, police reported.
Herron fell off that barrier along the edge of the elevated highway and plunged 35 feet onto a gravel lot, according to police.
Herron died later that morning at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, police reported.
"The mere fact that he even stopped at all to help that woman on a highway in the middle of the night says a lot about that man," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a Connecticut State Police spokesman, during a phone interview on Tuesday.
Vance paused and added, "And he died helping her."
Herron's selfless act came as no surprise to his family and friends, who, though mourning on Tuesday, chuckled as they remembered the spry, adventuresome man with the big heart.
"Every time I would see him, he would hug me and tell me he loved me," said Elkton-area real estate agent Ron McNeal who, during their 45-year friendship, had accompanied Herron on snowmobile riding excursions at 8,000 feet in Yellowstone National Park and other of his many adventures.
Findlay McCool, an Elkton-based lawyer, also had been Herron's friend for decades and, like McNeal and dozens of others, he had been on the receiving end of one of Herron's hugs.
"He just loved life and he loved people," McCool said, adding, "He was a man's man. He always wore the same thing – a good pair of work boots, and old pair of jeans, a flannel shirt, slightly worn, and a ball cap."
McCool also had occasionally accompanied Herron, whose love of salmon fishing, moose-hunting, snowmobiling and just plain traveling had led him to Alaska, Canada, Wyoming, Russia, New Zealand and other parts of world.
His wife for the past 61 years, Marjorie Haggerty Herron, also was his traveling companion.
According to Herron's daughter, Diane Campbell, a Havre de Grace resident, her father's life was marked by determination and action.
Because he was too young to enlist in the military during World War II, Herron, a lifelong Elkton resident, joined the merchant marines.
Herron worked on his father's farm off Blue Ball Road while also working at DuPont. After inheriting the farm, Herron worked the land to grow soybeans, wheat and corn. He died a farmer, one who worked seven days a week.
He also owned a deli in Duck, N.C. (Outer Banks), a deli near Elkton and several rental properties that he maintained.
"My dad was a self-educated man who could do anything – plumbing, electric, carpentry – you name it, he could do it," Campbell said. "He was the smartest, strongest man I've ever known. He helped everyone and loved everyone."
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