When Steve Saved Tony

In an email to HucksOnline, Tony Stewart, former NIC instructor and human-rights activist, tells this story of a spring 1979 rafting outing on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River with NIC tennis player Geoff Mould and Geoff’s friend, Steve Widmyer:

It was early spring and the water was high with rapid flowing currents. As we came around a curve, we spotted several trees that had fallen into the river over the winter. The current was so swift that it drove our raft directly into the trees and held the raft against the trees. Geoff and I were thrown from the raft and I was pulled underneath the trees and trapped while Geoff was fighting the rapids trying to get back into the raft. The force of the water not only pinned me under the trees but emptied my pockets and I lost my eye glasses. I simply was trapped underneath the trees and unable to get out. But Steve reached over the raft and spotted one of my arms. He tightly grabbed on to my arm with both hands and pulled me from under the trees and into the raft. Full email here. (Jesse Tinsley SR file photo, of Tony Stewart)

Question: Where would the local human-rights movement be without Tony Stewart?