Joline Gutierrez Krueger: Upfront: Hero's son seeking girl his dad saved from Santa Fe River in 1958

Apr. 16—ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — At most times of the year, there is no river in the Santa Fe River. It's a tributary of smooth stone and dried muck, a stream of silt winding its way through the historical heart of the city different and dry.

But on an afternoon nearly 63 years ago, swift waters rushed along the channel, clear and cool, deep enough to drown a small child.

Which on that May 5, 1958, it very nearly did.

It's a story Larry Malin rarely heard growing up, even though it was his father who was credited with jumping into the river to save that child, a 3-year-old girl named Donna Lee Vigil.

"My dad was just one of those guys who didn't talk about himself much, didn't think what he did was more than what anything anybody else would have done," Malin said. "He'd probably not be happy with me telling the story now."

But we do because for the past few springs Malin has thought about that day, though he was only 8 months old at the time.

Because even after they pass away — Malin's father died in 1994 at age 81 — heroes should be lauded and heroic deeds remembered.

Because Malin has always wondered what happened to Donna Lee.

Glen Malin had been a "shy hero," as the Santa Fe New Mexican called him, a stoic man straight out of central casting who left the river's edge that day before anybody got his name.

But they found Glen anyway.

In newspaper photos — one in which he is sitting with his wife, Mary, the other of him accepting a commendation from acting Santa Fe Mayor Willie Seligman — he looks uncomfortable, as if he's waiting for a proctology appointment rather than praise.

But oh, what praise he deserved.

It was just after 3 p.m. on that Monday and Glen and Mary were running a few minutes late to pick up oldest sons Greg and Ed from Gonzales Elementary School on West Alameda, just north of the river.

Maybe, Malin's mother later considered, had they not been late they might not have otherwise seen the children standing on the riverbank looking down at something in the water.

That something was Donna Lee, facedown and motionless in the water.

"She said it felt like the spirit coming over them, like there was a guardian angel," Malin said. "She started praying."

Glen started down the riverbank to the water, passing a man in a business suit fastidiously removing his shoes and socks.

"That pissed off my dad," Malin said. "... He thought that if you are more concerned about your clothes getting wet when there's a life to save then you need to go back to where you came from."

The little girl wasn't breathing when Glen scooped her up in his arms and brought her up the bank to perform resuscitation procedures.

Others arrived. Pete Valdez offered his coat for the girl to lie on, according to the New Mexican. Clois Rainwater, described by the newspaper as a Scout executive, took over life-saving procedures for Glen.

Neighbors told police they didn't know the identity of the wet and wonderful man who had so calmly and quickly jumped in the river to save the girl, then disappeared, but within hours Glen's boss at PNM learned that Glen was the mystery man and contacted the newspaper.

Donna Lee, the paper reported, spent a night at St. Vincent Hospital and was released. She had wandered away from the backyard of her home at 901 Alto, a block south of the river, mother Rose Vigil told the paper.

On May 8, 1958, Glen was presented with the commendation from Seligman. It read, in part: "Your actions in so rapidly responding to the conditions in rescuing Donna Lee Vigil from the waters of the Santa Fe River, and coolly administering life-saving artificial respiration, are responsible for a little girl living today."

Years later, Malin found a yellowed newspaper clipping about the commendation tucked away in his father's roll-top desk. It was, he thinks, the only thing his father saved from that day.

His father had always been like that, he said. Serious, never one to grandstand, always doing what needed to be done.

"I think his background helps explain that," Malin said.

Glen Everett Malin was born in the tiny coal-mining community of Truax, Iowa, in 1913, the oldest of six siblings. He was 16 when his father died, forcing him to become the head of the household, just as the Depression was setting in.

Rather than toil in the coal pits as his father had, Glen joined the Navy, serving from 1932 to 1939, sending his paychecks home to his family. He re-enlisted in 1942 after Pearl Harbor was bombed, serving on the USS Calvert amphibious attack transport in the Pacific theater for the next three years where he participated in several major invasions.

He had put aside his own personal pursuits all that time until marrying Mary in 1949. He was 38 when they had the first of four sons, living in Santa Fe until moving to Albuquerque in 1959, a year after he saved Donna Lee.

Still waters in his father ran deep. Both parents are long gone now.

Finding Donna Lee is a hope Malin has to celebrate the heroics of humanity his father kept so quiet, so hidden. But if she is also gone or never found, perhaps telling the story of his father's heroism will be enough.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com, Facebook or @jolinegkg on Twitter.