SOMERS POINT — City Council thanked Dan Myers for his service to the community ahead of his move away from the area.
The photographer served as chairman of the Somers Point Arts Commission since January 2022, through which he “provided a supportive environment for all the arts,” according to a resolution passed in his honor. He joined the Arts Commission in 2018.
Myers said he was familiar with Kathy Arleth, who was chairwoman of the Arts Commission and asked him to get involved.
“It didn’t take me long to decide that would be a good thing,” he said.
During his tenure, Myers was instrumental in securing the use of the youth center and later the senior center to host community events.
“It was very underutilized. Once I came on, we are in there all the time now and have exhibits there,” he said of the senior center on Ambler Road.
He hung a gallery system in the senior center allowing for exhibits.
Myers, who moved to southern New Jersey in 1974 to work at Fischer Greenhouses in Linwood as a greenhouse grower/manager, acted as the unofficial photographer for city events. He also offered photography classes, printing and framing the students’ work to be displayed during an annual exhibit.
The 75-year-old attended Atlantic Cape Community College, graduating in 1984 with an associate degree in respiratory therapy. After retiring in 2017, he turned his full focus to his business, Photography by Dan Myers, which initially consisted mostly of weddings. He transitioned to digital photography in 2008 and took up landscape photography.
In 2013, he joined Stainton’s A Gallery of Shops in Ocean City, selling landscape prints. He also offered reproduction and printing services for local artists.
Myers also was a member of the Somers Point Environmental Commission from 2020-24 and ran for City Council three times.
He also was a member of the Stay Focused Photography Club at Stockton University and started a men’s breakfast club that met weekly at the Point Diner.
He and his wife, Alice Myers, who resigned from Somers Point Board of Education in November, have eight grandchildren ranging in age from 28 to 3, and are planning a move to be closer to their family.
“It’s a very bittersweet thing for us to leave the area,” he said. “We talked for a long time. I didn’t really want to go but Alice wanted to, so we decided to just do it.”
Myers recently started a new website with his brother Russ, Myersbrothersart.com, through which he will continue to offer his prints of local scenes.
“I am looking forward to re-establishing a photography business and new friendships in Massachusetts, but I will miss south Jersey and its people,” he said.
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff