By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
UPPER TOWNSHIP — A committee recently formed to research and document the history of the Upper Township Beach Patrol as well as establish a Hall of Fame award for lifeguards who have contributed to the long success of the UTBP.
Dr. David Hadley, a former lieutenant with the patrol, said the idea originated with Capt. Bill Handley.
“He has been there 20 plus years and got interested in the history of the beach patrol. People come and go, no one has ever kept track,” he said.
Handley reached out to others in the community, including Mayor Rich Palombo, and they formed a committee a couple of months ago to start compiling an archive. That led to the idea of forming a hall of fame.
Hadley said creating a hall of fame and having an alumni dinner are ways of “elevating the career or summertime job of lifeguards and attracting more good-quality candidates in the future.”
He said it also is a way of showing the community the efforts the patrol makes to keep them safe while enjoying the township’s beaches.
“It makes this community a little better and a little safer,” he said.
The committee has inducted six former lifeguards as inaugural members of the Upper Township Beach Patrol Hall of Fame and has scheduled an alumni dinner for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, at The Deauville Inn, where the names of the inductees will be announced. The public is invited to attend. The cost is $60 for adults and $20 for children. Tickets are available at uppertownship.com/public-safety/beach-patrol/alumni.
According to Hadley, an unofficial history of Strathmere shows that it was first discovered by fishermen as a great natural resource. The north end of the island is bound by Corsons Inlet, named in the early 1900s after a family that is still active in the township today. West Jersey Railroad brought many visitors to the area from Philadelphia, Camden and northwest New Jersey. The tracks ran right through the center of the town.
The book “Upper Township and Its Ten Villages,” written locally by historian Robert Holden, details some of the history of Strathmere:
“Lifesaving stations, manned by the U.S. Lifesaving Service — which eventually expanded to become the U.S. Coast Guard — kept watch over the wild beaches and inlet.
It has been reported that from 1806 to 1885, about 65 vessels wrecked between Corsons Inlet and Townsends Inlet. In 1878 alone, seven schooners and one steamship were lost. So, while the Atlantic Ocean is a valuable resource for maritime transportation, fishing, surfing and swimming — it can be an unpredictable source of danger.
Strathmere, once part of Sea Isle City, was sold to Upper Township in 1905 for the tidy sum of $31,500 — the cost of a good car in 2021. In 1910, Strathmere even had its own school (Corsons Inlet School) housed in a bungalow owned by John L. Schmidt. Interestingly, one of the great-grandsons of that schoolmaster went on to become a captain with the UTBP in the 1980s.
Early records show a resident named John Trainor being hired as the first lifeguard as early as 1932. He was hired at a seasonal rate of $70. Strathmere beaches have been guarded since that time. Township resident Michael DuBruille was brought on in 1976 as what is thought to be the first official captain of the UTBP.
As many as six subsequent captains supervised the UTBP until Bill Handley was promoted to the position in 1992. Handley has had a long and successful tenure supervising the beach patrol and maintaining the safety of the beaches in both Strathmere and Beesleys Point.
The UTBP began participating in area lifeguard races in the mid-1970s. In 2013, the relatively small patrol tied Ocean City for first place in the top event of the season, the South Jersey Lifeguard Championships. The event combines singles and doubles rowing events, running and swimming.”