John Ryan Sr.: A Lifelong Passion for Guarding Lives

John Ryan Sr. was, as he says, “a high school nobody,” when he tried out for a lifeguarding job in his hometown of Long Beach. That was three-quarters of a century ago — and the man is still at it.

At age 89, John is deeply involved with an array of lifeguard and swimming programs in East Hampton, from the “Nipper” and Junior Lifeguard program to the East Hampton Ocean Rescue and YMCA Hurricane Swim team, both of which he helped start and grow.

And earlier this month, chatting at Main Beach not far from the lifeguard stand he helped design, he said he was running again for East Hampton School Board — a seat he’s held for 25 years and, on May 16, locked in four more as he was reelected.

Wearing a huge stars-and-stripes top hat reminding people to vote, Ryan articulated a decades-spanning passion for water rescues. He’s been a guard and guard trainer for some 68 years.

“Being an ocean lifeguard has really shaped my life,” he said.

Looking back at that first job interview over seven decades ago, he recalled being tasked with rescuing and carrying a “very old guy” around the jetties in Long Beach — where there are jetties every 400 yards.

“He says, ‘Now, put me in a cross chest and take me around the jetty,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘What’s a cross chest?’ And he showed me and I got my job.”

The boost that success gave the teenager changed his attitude toward school, he said. He received scholarships that led to degrees in business and education, and quickly realized that his full-time job only left weekends free for lifeguarding. By then, he’d been on Long Beach patrol for eight years, ascending to the rank of captain.

“I thought, ‘Well, jeez, if I taught, I could be a lifeguard all summer,’” he said.

He landed a teaching job in the Westhampton Beach School District and subsequently switched to East Hampton, spending summers pursuing his master’s degree in Fresno, California. He and his wife, Patricia Ann — “the heart and soul of our family,” he said — packed up their kids and drove cross-country each summer.

His wife helped get him through school, John said. “She wrote all my papers,” he confessed.

Master’s degree in hand, John continued teaching in East Hampton schools and secured a job at the Amagansett Beach Association, where he’s worked for over 38 years. The couple joined the ambulance corps and served as volunteers for some 34 years, too, he said.

But it was when a then-chief of the county guards persuaded John to become a trainer that his passion for shoreline saves fired up even further.

It was the 1980s and his focus on training — first, lasering in on his own children — led his son, John Jr., to become East Hampton Town’s chief lifeguard. “And that triggered everything,” John explained.

“We started a tournament, we started junior lifeguards, we started ocean rescue, the hurricanes swim team,” he said.

As for himself, John was 65 years old when he gave up ocean rescue. He’d been out swimming and came upon a woman in distress. He saved her, but one of the responding guards tried to save him, as well.

While his rescue days were over, his national tournament days continued. Although John was 70 and the age groups only went up to 60, he convinced officials to allow him to compete. “I have five or six medals. When I competed, sometimes I’d get third place or second place because there were only three people in the contest,” he related. “But I beat all the other lifeguards who have now stopped doing this.”

Sidelined from actual ocean rescues, John continues to teach. Sitting at Main Beach, John spoke with awe and obvious satisfaction of the children he’s taught. He looked forward to the next day, encouraging nervous 5- and 6-year-olds to walk into the YMCA for their first swimming test.

And just about every year since its inception, he’s hopped into the waves on New Year’s Day during the Polar Bear plunge fundraiser for the local food pantry.

A tall and imposing figure among the crowds that assemble on the beach, he’s hard to miss.

Wearing his giant stars-and-stripes top hat.