Community mourns for BCSD deputy who died rescuing distressed swimmer

Community mourns for BCSD deputy who died rescuing distressed swimmer
By Fran Thompson
Mark Frohlich made it a point to say that while his friend drowned while saving a distressed swimmer in the Gulf of Mexico near Dune Dr. in Fort Morgan, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Smith, 57, was well trained in his life’s choice, which was serving a community that had come to embrace him in the all too short time he called Fort Morgan his police beat.
“He was in great shape and he was a skilled swimmer. He just finished a two week class about how to deal with rip currents,’’ said Frohlich, who knew the deputy both as owner of Sassy Bass Amazin’ Grill in Fort Morgan and as his neighbor in the Martinwood subdivision off County Rd. 6 in Gulf Shores.
“The first time I met him, he pulled me over for not stopping at the stop sign that nobody stops for,’’ Frohlich added. “He said he was new in the neighborhood and was stopping me just to introduce himself.’’
Frohlich said Deputy Smith immediately ingratiated himself into the Fort Morgan community.
“People loved him down there. He became such a part of the community. He was a genuine, caring person, and he had a way of behaving that was more like a priest than a cop. People loved talking to him and he loved helping people from all over.’’
Deputy Smith, who leaves behind his wife of 32 years, Samantha, and two grown children, was honored by law enforcement peers during a procession from Robertsdale to Mobile on June 8.
Governor Kay Ivey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff all weekend in honor of Deputy Smith.
Smith, a volunteer firefighter by the time he was 15, worked for five years with the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, after a distinguished career as a firefighter for 30 years in Alabama and Georgia. There is no doubt he made a huge impact on the South Baldwin community during the seven years he worked at BCSD.
“Bill was a huge part of our Fitness Factory family,’’ said owner Nelson Berry. “He was one of those rare individuals who never met a stranger and always left you feeling better with a kind word or his bone crushing hand shake.
“He will be missed not only here at the gym, where he was admired and adored, but in the community he so proudly and heroically served. Good friends are hard to find, and even harder to lose.’’
Deputy Smith and fellow Deputy Sydney Wentworth were both on patrol in Fort Morgan around 6 p.m. on June 6 when they both responded to a report of a distressed swimmer in the Gulf.
The two deputies were members of the Fort Morgan Patrol team assigned with, among other duties, assisting volunteers from the Fort Morgan Fire Dept. with beach emergencies and swimmers in distress calls. The two had been working full-time in Fort Morgan since March.
The Sheriff’s Office began patrolling on Ft. Morgan with staff dedicated specifically to that area in 2020 with school resource officers re-assigned while schools were out. That led to permanent assignments there for Deputies Smith and Wentworth, who both received advanced lifesaving training.
Although earlier reports stated Deputy Smith died of cardiac arrest and Deputy Wentworth was the first in the Gulf, BCSD Sheriff Hoss Mack said during a later press conference that Deputy Smith was the first one in the water after seeing two women struggling in the surf.
When Deputy Smith saw one of the woman had a life preserver, he turned his attention to 19-year-old Donte Reed, who was working the Fort Morgan Beach Rentals stand on site and also bravely went into rescue mode when he saw the women in distress.
Deputy Wentworth then arrived and turned her attention to the second woman in the Gulf, who by then was also struggling, according to Sheriff Mack.
“The woman was very much in distress by the time Deputy Wentworth got to her. She saved her life,” Sheriff Mack said.
Deputy Smith reached Reed and deployed a portable flotation device that Reed was able to grab.
“The waves really started to pick up and they got into a roll under. We believe at that point in time, Deputy Smith and the teenager were rolled into the surf and taken to the bottom. Shortly after that, Bill and the teenager were separated,” Sheriff Mack said.
Reed told NBC-15 that Deputy Smith grabbed him and told him to hang on to a rescue buoy while he pulled him through the surf towards shore.
“I honestly don’t know how much longer I would have lasted if I wasn’t hanging on to anything in the water. And that buoy helped,’’ he said. “I’m very grateful for Deputy Smith. Without him, I wouldn’t be here, honestly.”
“We must remember that (Deputy Smith) and Deputy Wentworth saved three lives that day by their actions,” Sheriff Mack said. “We lost a deputy, but we saved three civilians who have a second chance of life.”
Gulf Shores police and the U.S. Coast Guard responded with jet skis and treated Deputy Smith onshore before he was taken to the SBRMC Emergency Room in Gulf Shores, where he was pronounced dead.
“Bill Smith did what Bill Smith always did, he saw the need to put his life on the line to save somebody else’s and that’s what he did. He saved a life,” said Sheriff Mack. “Bill Smith lived as a hero, he died as a hero and he will be honored as such.”
Sheriff Mack said Smith played an essential role in starting up the Beach Patrol Unit serving Fort Morgan and many deputies have asked to be considered for the same position since his death.
Deputy Smith’s beach patrol vehicle was moved to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office on Hwy. 59 in Robertsdale as a memorial, and for days Baldwin citizens left flowers, and written notes there. A banner draped over his truck’s windshield included the BCSD badge and Deputy Smith’s radio call sign – B105.
“We had people out there 24 hours a day, and groups of people as big as 75 at one time who are paying their respects,” Sheriff Mack said.
Services were held June 12 at the Baldwin County Coliseum in Robertsdale. Memorial donations can be made to the Michael Malone Memorial Scholarship Fund in Gulf Shores or the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Foundation.
“When Bill spoke about his family, he spoke like a man should: with reverence, with love and admiration,” Gulf Shores Lieutenant Jason Woodruff said at the service. “It’s up to us to maintain the standard.
Fitness instructor Rob Breckner, who worked out with Deputy Smith the Friday before he died, said that he is positive that if he had known the outcome before going into the Gulf to save a life, his friend would have went in anyway.
“There is no doubt he would do it again. That is just the way he was,’’ Breckner said. “Samantha (Deputy Smith’s wife) and I were talking about that at the memorial. Anything Bill did, he was all in. He was just a great guy.’’

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Rachel Breckner, pictured with Deputy Smith and Lt. Jason Woodruff with the Gulf Shores Police Dept. in September of 2019, was one of Deputy Smith’s many close friends. “The world lost a great man today. He died a true hero, while rescuing swimmers in distress from the Gulf. Rest easy, Bill. Thank you for your service. You will be sorely missed but never forgotten,’’ she wrote.