By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
His parents told Renny Steele when he was 18 years old that he had to get a summer job because they weren’t going to let him just surf the whole summer.
“I was surfing all day and they said that’s not a job,” Steele recalled, laughing.
So he became a lifeguard in Sea Isle City. That was 1968. All these years later, he’s still with Sea Isle’s beach patrol and serves as its chief.
Recognizing his 50 years of service – he took two summers off from lifeguarding to earn his master’s degree – the city has renamed the section of the Promenade next to the beach patrol’s headquarters as “Chief Renny Steele Way.”
The ceremony Monday included a delegation of city officials led my Mayor Leonard Desiderio and Councilmen William Kehner and Jack Gibson. Dozens of Steele’s friends, family members, including his wife Barbara and daughter Katie, and current and former lifeguards were also in attendance.
When Desiderio climbed up a ladder to attach the Chief Renny Steele Way sign to a light pole overlooking the Promenade, the crowd spontaneously erupted in chants of “Renny, Renny, Renny.”
“There’s only one Renny Steele,” Desiderio said as the crowd applauded.
Steele, now 70, has headed the beach patrol for 35 years, longer than anyone else in its 101-year history. He has held the titles of captain and chief. In previous years, the captain was the top-ranking member of the beach patrol, but the city changed the title to chief for the first time under Steele.
Under Steele’s leadership, Desiderio said he believes Sea Isle has “the finest beach patrol in the state of New Jersey.”
Desiderio praised Steele for implementing a series of innovations that have made Sea Isle’s beaches safer for the tens of thousands of visitors who vacation in the resort town each summer.
One major program created by Steele is the “Afterhours Lifeguard Emergency Response Team,” known as ALERT, to respond to beach emergencies when the lifeguards go off duty in the evening.
He also established a color-coded flag system on the beaches to warn swimmers of rough surf conditions.
He has also organized local swimming programs and events that serve the dual purpose of bringing the community together and acting as a recruiting tool for future lifeguards.
“We are a better community because of your efforts, chief,” Desiderio told Steele.
In an interview, Steele preferred to give credit to the beach patrol’s administration for any success he has enjoyed as chief.
“I’m receiving all of the credit when it’s not mine to take,” he said.
Steele was completely surprised when he was called up to the Promenade on Monday evening for the unveiling of Chief Renny Steele Way. The dignitaries included Bill Gallagher and Mike McHale, two former beach patrol captains who preceded him.
“That was emotionally moving. It’s something I didn’t expect,” Steele said of the ceremony.
Originally from Collingswood, N.J., Steele probably would not have returned to the beach patrol to become captain in 1986 if not for Sea Isle’s Riley family, he said. The Rileys, whose sons, Billy and Eugene, were lifeguards, invited Steele to live with them for the summer that year.
An avid surfer as a teenager, Steele always enjoyed the ocean and the bays and thought that becoming a lifeguard would fulfill his passion for the outdoors.
“The ocean was calling me. The outdoors was calling me,” he said.
But there was also a deeper, more serious reason that steered him into becoming a lifeguard – the desire to save lives.
“I really do feel that we’ve made a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “That’s rewarding to me.”
Steele is a retired guidance counselor in the Delran School District. After 50 years with Sea Isle’s beach patrol, is retirement on the horizon there, too?
“You think about it,” he said of retirement.
He noted that he sometimes wonders to himself, “Am I still doing a good job?”
Judging by the enthusiastic reception he received Monday from city officials and members of the beach patrol, the answer to that question appears to be a resounding yes.
In the interview, Steele made it clear that 2020 isn’t likely to be his last summer heading the beach patrol.
“I’m not thinking this is my last year,” he said.
