By By Hally Jackson, Special to JTNews
Heroes come in many shapes and sizes. Some are remembered for their bravery and some for unsurpassed loyalty. The Tacoma community remembers Marvin Alan Kelgman, an 11-year-old patrol boy who died saving the life of a child.
Marvin was a sixth-grader at Lowell Elementary School, a Cub Scout, crossing guard, ambitious newspaper carrier for the Tacoma News Tribune and a Temple Beth El member. He was compassionate and industrious. He died making sure every last child at Lowell School was out of the building during a severe earthquake on April 13,1949.
The Nisqually Earthquake, last year on Feb. 28, jogged the memory of Kelcy Robert Allen, a Kirkland resident. Recalling the 1949 earthquake, he remembered the moment where his life was changed forever. He recalled the day his treasured elementary school was shaking from an earthquake and an 11-year-old grabbed his hand and shouted, “We’ve got to get out!”
The seconds that followed were monumental. Allen remembered seeing bricks raining from the ceiling. He also remembered Kelgman, the patrol boy, stretching out his arms and throwing himself between a falling brick dormer from the fourth floor and Allen. Next, Allen remembered waking up in an ambulance, alive. Marvin Allan Klegman was dead. He was buried two days later at Home of Peace, the Jewish cemetery in Lakewood.
Who was this young hero who gave his life for another child 52 years earlier? Allen came to the Tacoma Public Library to find an answer to this compelling question. After his discovery, he returned to Lowell Elementary, viewed the portrait of Marvin Klegman in the library and recognized the events from a half a century earlier.
“All my life, I’ve seen myself as a 6-year-old with this crossing guard,” Allen remarks. “I then began to realize that somebody in this life had actually died for me and it was a child.”
“With the memory of Sept. 11th, it seems fit to celebrate the goodness of mankind,” says Babe Lehrer, a close friend of the Klegmans. “Marvin’s parents, Sam and Thelma Klegman, were my best friends and it’s time to recognize that we have a hero right here in Tacoma.”
Lehrer, with the support of Marvin’s two brothers, Keith and Kerry Klegman, are raising $150,000 to commission a memorial of Marvin and designate a day at Lowell Elementary to celebrate life’s heroes. Kerry was in second grade when his older brother died. He remembers waiting on the steps of the school for Marvin to walk him home. He still has his brother’s crossing-guard vest.
On Marvin Klegman Day, the students at Lowell School will be asked to do something special for someone else and feel good about it. In a sense, all the kids will be heroes. The piece of public art will carry a message of caring for each other and will have a long-term benefit for the kids of the community.