BUTLER TWP — A Cranberry Township man who fell to his death trying to rescue an injured teenager was honored today as a hero by the state police.

“He would have been overwhelmed,” Donald Spillane’s wife, Donna, said of the ceremony inside the police barracks. “He would have just loved this.”

Donald Spillane, 47, died May 14 while trying to save a girl who’d fallen at the Kildoo Bridge in McConnells Mill State Park.

Spillane’s son-in-law, 25-year-old Chris Bach of Butler Township, and friend 22-year-old Joshua Rader of Harmony assisted in the girl’s rescue effort.

Capt. Brian Locke presented all three with the Pennsylvania State Police Outstanding Citizenship Award, the highest civilian honor the state police present.