Man who died saving son loved outdoors
By Ginger Livingston
The Daily Reflector
Monday, June 22, 2009
A Belvoir family is mourning the death of a man killed while saving the life of his son Sunday afternoon.
William “Bud” Green, 46, and 12 other members of his family where playing on a sandbar located about 1 mile east of Port Terminal Road, when a section of a decayed tree snapped and fell toward part of the group, said his sister-in-law Deborah Green.
The man everyone calls Bud pushed his 4-year-old son of the way but was hit by the log, which a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission officer estimated to be about 10 feet long and 8-10 inches think.
Deborah Green said family members pulled her brother-in-law from the water, used cell phones to call for help and transported him to a boat ramp at Hardee's Creek and Port Terminal Road, off N.C. 33 east.
Greenville-Fire Rescue transported Green to Pitt County Memorial Hospital where he was declared dead.
Deborah Green said the branch glanced off the little boy's shoulder, leaving several scratches.
“He is distraught,” she said. “The way I explained (his father's death) was the doctor couldn't fix daddy, the injury was too bad, but God would.”
Deborah Green is married to Bud Green's younger brother, William “Frankie” Green, and is the sister of Bud's wife, Teresa.
“My husband has lost a brother, my sister lost a husband and I've lost a wonderful brother-in-law, but I can tell you he wouldn't have changed a thing,” she said. About two years ago one of his nieces almost drowned and Bud Green was the first one in the water to help her, his sister-in-law said.
The family on Sunday was holding a Father's Day celebration at Twin Lakes camp site in Chocowinity, she said, and Bud and several of his older nieces and nephews had taken the younger children boating on the river.
Deborah Green said her brother-in-law was an outdoorsman and enjoyed sharing the experience with anyone, especially children.
She said a family friend who was confined to a wheelchair once mentioned she had never taken a boat ride. Bud Green scooped the woman up, got her on the boat and took her for a spin, his sister-in-law said. It wasn't unusual for him to pack up a group of children for a camp out along the river.
“There wasn't anybody left out of his life,” she said.
“He didn't need clothes or vehicles. None of that was important to him, his family is what was important to him. There will never been another Bud,” she said.
http://www.reflector.com/news/man-who-d ... 76983.html