Lenny Skutnik

{{short description|Civil servant and civilian hero (born 1953)}}

Martin Leonard Skutnik III (born 1953 in Mississippi, known as Lenny)Shereikis, Richard, "Heroes Don't Need Zip Codes: Lenny Skutnik - Accidental Hero", in The Hero in Transition (Ray B. Browne, Marshall W. Fishwick, editors). Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1983 ({{ISBN|0-87972-237-1}}), pp. 107-114.{{cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07EEDF1338F934A15752C0A964948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all |title=Notes on People: Rescuer Honored |work=New York Times |last1=Krebs |first1=Albin |last2=Thomas |first2=Robert McG. |authorlink2=Robert McG. Thomas |date=4 February 1982 | accessdate=2009-01-19}} is a retired employee of the United States Congressional Budget Office{{cite web |url=http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=1068 |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2010-06-07 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100606071903/http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=1068 |archivedate=2010-06-06 }}

who, on January 13, 1982, saved the life of Priscilla Tirado following the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 into the frozen Potomac River, Washington, D.C. As passengers were being rescued, Tirado was too weak to take hold of the line dropped from a helicopter. Skutnik, one of hundreds of bystanders, dived into the icy water and brought her to the river bank.{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202052_2.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=In a Moment of Horror, Rousing Acts of Courage | date=13 January 2007}}

U.S. President Ronald Reagan invited Skutnik to attend the 1982 State of the Union address on January 26, 1982, where he sat next to First Lady Nancy Reagan; Reagan praised Skutnik as manifesting "the spirit of American heroism at its finest".

Since then, others invited to sit in the Presidential gallery and honored in the president's speech have often been called Lenny Skutniks.{{cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0D71639F937A1575BC0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title=Bonding as New Political Theater: Bring On the Babies and Cue the Yellow Dog | work=New York Times | author=Francis X. Clines | date=24 August 1996 | accessdate=2009-01-19}}{{cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E6DF1E39F93BA35754C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title=The Way We Live Now: 07-08-01: On Language; | work=New York Times | author=William Safire | date=8 July 2001 | accessdate=2009-01-19}}

Skutnik received the United States Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal, the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal, and various other tributes.

In 2010 he retired from his position as a printing and distribution assistant for the Congressional Budget Office.John M. Spratt, Jr., Recognizing Martin Leonard Skutnik, {{USCongRec|2010|E1050|date=June 9, 2010}}