The men in my family have been seafarers as far back as 1750 and were some of the first settlers to southern New Jersey and Barnegat Bay. I guess I always knew I would be a Coastie. I wore my first Coast Guard “uniform” at the age of three (1949 photo at left) with my grandfather Harold Wilkins who is pointing at an airship flying over Barnegat Bay enroute to Lakehurst NAVAIRSTA. My grandfather was a surfman and Coastie having served all along the south Jersey coast. A 1917 photo of him and the crew on the steps of Island Beach Station #110 appears in the credits of THE GUARDIAN. That photo and a photo of his surfman's check can be seen in the Mesquite Photo Album above. My Uncle Newt was a 25 year BMC in the CG and my Uncle Bud served in the CG during Korea. My other grandfather, Harry Newell served in the USN as a MCPO electrician serving in both WWI and WWII. I grew up on small boats in Seaside Park, New Jersey.

The family's first boat was a 32-foot Chris Craft and our second was a 40-foot, twin diesel powered Matthews. By the time our third boat was launched in 1961, a 51-foot, 29 ton, twin screw, diesel powered yacht named the Maine Maid, I was already an experienced coxswain and navigator. Our family loved cruising New England. Annually we would cruise from Manasquan Inlet (NJ) to Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket (RI) and throughout New England cruising as far north as Booth Bay Harbor, ME.

My family owned a very successful manufacturing business in northern New Jersey called Servo-Tek Products Company of Hawthorne, NJ and Servo-Tek Marine of Clearwater, FL. My father Floyd was the owner and President of the businesses. In December 1965, I was placed on a waiting list to enlist in the USCG with the intent as a third generation Coastie of making the CG a twenty year career as an ET. My father and I both felt that my training as an ET would be a valuable asset to my someday taking over Servo-Tek Marine which manufactured RDF's, Ship-to-shore radios, depth sounders, marine refrigeration and more.

On January 8, 1966 my father went missing while on a business trip to Boston. My mother Helen and I took over running the company hoping he would return. In April we learned that he had been robbed and murdered when his body washed ashore in Revere Beach, MA. The case has never been solved. In May 1966, realizing that with my father's murder a twenty year career in the CG was no longer an option, I reported to RECRUTRACEN Cape May and graduated with my company Oscar 64 in July. At the end of July I reported to the Coast Guard cutter Mesquite in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin where I would spend the next four years until discharged in May 1970.

Following discharge I returned to NJ with my wife Sherry to help my mother with the family business. In 1977 my wife and I and our first child moved to Dallas to expand Servo-Tek's market in the rapidly growing southwest. In the mid 1980s the business was sold and I have been an entrepreneur ever since, owning many businesses over the last twenty years. My wife and I still dabble in our antique victorian art glass business but most of our time is spent raising two of our grandkids. Sherry and I have three grown children (2g-1b) and three grandchildren (2b-1g). We are also very involved in our church graceoutreachcenter.org and have seen the church grow from 40 members in 1984 to over 3000 in 2006.