Board Member
I’ve been around Jones Beach lifeguards my entire life. My Dad Edwin Rooney was a Jones Beach lifeguard from 1951 till 1988 before finishing up lifeguarding with the National Seashore at Sailors Haven for 8 years. My Jones Beach lifeguard career started at Montauk Downs in 1979 and continued at Jones Beach Field 6 and later as a boatswain at East Bath Ocean.
I graduated from East Islip high school and continued my education at Nassau Community College and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse. I have a degree in Environmental Studies.
After three winters living and surfing on the North Shore of Oahu as well as short stint lifeguarding in Ala Moana and Waikiki beach for the City and County of Honolulu. I began a 33 year career as a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department FDNY. I completed my whole time from 1990 to 2023 in Ladder 116 in the Dutch Kills section of Astoria and Long Island City Queens.
While I worked year round as a firefighter I continued working part time at Jones Beach at the East Bath Ocean. I served on the JBLC union board as well as positions on the NYSLC UUP state lifeguard union. I also helped out with the Junior Lifeguard program and competed in the USLA regional and National competitions and local tournaments.
I’ve taken on the role as the Jones Beach historian gathering photos, articles and history spanning the years of The Jones Beach Patrols founding in 1929 right through to its current history. I’ve found several early lifeguards and their children as well as interviewed some of our lifeguards from the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s.
I currently live in Bay Shore with my wife Rhea Courtney Bozic and continue working part time at Robert Moses Field 3. I’m looking forward to working with the Jones Beach Lifeguard Association and sharing the history and photographs of the Jones Beach Lifeguards almost 100 years of experience.