Thanks to the Cape Gazette's Dave Frederick for many reasons, including his years of excellent journalism, teaching and coaching. Special thanks to Dave for his poignant coverage of the unveiling of the plaque to the late Tommy ("TC") Coveleski at the Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters Aug. 8.
Related: I believe it was Dave and his wife Susan who conceived the plaque and its design and made it a reality. He is a former member of the RBP (as was his son, Dave Jr.) and worked with the Rehoboth Beach Patrol Alumni Association on this. Reading Dave's words about unveiling the plaque are inspirational poetry:
...there was TC where he had always been, next to his father, where he will always be.
The best of us left the rest of us.
The plaque unveiling comes with some little-known background: In the fall of 1990, TC and I did some math and figured that the coming year would be the 70th anniversary of the RBP. That led directly to the RBP’s entering the 1990 Rehoboth Christmas parade for the very first time. We had a lifeguard chair on a float and RBP Captain Jate Walsh sat on the chair as Santa Claus. He held the reins to two parallel lines of guards, all dressed in red, who would switch swimming strokes in unison to Santa’s directions. That was a hit and TC led the work on putting the float together with family members and other guards at the Coveleski family homestead.
The following summer (1991) we had a small celebration at the RBP shack in honor of the patrol’s 70th birthday. That led to five years of planning for the RBP’s 75th anniversary and tracking down 70 decades of current and former guards. Every decade of the RBP’s service was represented at the 75th by one or morepeople from each decade. This included Ed Hill from the 1920s.
An observation about the TC plaque unveiling ceremony:
Why wasn’t the current captain there as well as current RBP lieutenants to render a salute or acknowledgment in remembrance of one of the RBP’s greatest members? Do current RBP members even know who TC or his father were? Frank Coveleski revolutionized lifesaving on Delmarva, initiating the cover-down system to keep all beaches guarded even when rescues are being made; Frank developed the most rigorous lifesaving training program on the coast which had, as its overwhelming objectives, prevention of injuries and death, not winning “game” competitions (even though Frank was a legendary coach and turned out champion football teams). Frank had telephones installed at every stand so that guards didn’t waste time and attention signaling with semaphore flags which would compromise their ability to watch the water.
Tom Coveleski followed in his father’s footsteps, putting in the longest number of years of service of any member of the RBP; TC initiated both a pioneering beach youth recreation problem which became a national model; he also initiated the RBP’s junior lifeguard program. Remarkably, in his last year of life and after he had lost his stomach to cancer, TC taught and coached for an entire year. That kind of commitment and courage are almost unimaginable, and are a profound testament to TC, his family, and their values.
Both men sacrificed plenty for the RBP and public safety - Frank dying on the floor of city hall fighting for a living wage for his guards which, until fairly recently, maintained the longest-running safety (no drownings) record in the world.
This summer marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of the RBP. Why has nothing been said by the city or the RBP itself? The patrol is the oldest on Delmarva and one of the oldest in the country. We had talked about this with TC before his death, and one of our greatest wishes was that he would live long enough to witness this anniversary.
Even if the RBP or the town don’t care about Tom and his family’s legacy to beach safety and public service, there are plenty of alumni and members of the public who do care. That’s something TC was made very aware of when we held a special party for him last September. It was sad for many of us but our buddy, Tommy Coveleski, buoyed, as he had many people over the years with his perfect safety record and engaging manner, our spirits in his true-to-heart unselfish embrace of all who were there in body or in spirit.
Dr. Peter I. Hartsock
former lieutenant, Rehoboth Beach Patrol
charter member, Rehoboth Beach Patrol Alumni Association
founding member, Delaware United Open Water Lifesaving Program
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