LACEY – Charles “Bud” Mezera can measure much of his life in summers. Sixty of them, to be exact.
They began in 1967, when Lacey Township’s lakes looked very different, beach badges cost $1 and the newly created beach patrol was as much about checking those badges as watching the water. There were no cell phones, no sophisticated communication system and, at first, not even lifeguard stands.
Mezera was 27 years old and already teaching at the Forked River School when he became one of five members of that first beach patrol. Now, after six decades watching over Lacey’s beaches and generations of young people who worked on them, Mezera is retiring.
But perhaps the greater measure of those years can be found in the people whose lives crossed his along the way.
From The Classroom To The Beach
Mezera came to Lacey Township in 1961 after graduating from Montclair State and began teaching sixth grade at Forked River. He spent 43 years at the school before retiring in 2004.
His second career began while the first was still relatively new. Mezera recalled that Lacey’s lakes had once been open to virtually anyone. In 1966, the township began selling $1 beach badges, but enforcing the new system proved difficult. The following summer, the beach patrol was created.
“Technically, we were badge checkers,” Mezera recalled.
There were five members of that original patrol, and the early operation was decidedly low-tech. Lifeguard stands came later. At one point, a telephone attached to a pole at the beach provided a way to reach Mezera, assuming someone heard it ringing.
When The Student Became The Boss
One of the children sitting in Mezera’s sixth-grade classroom in 1964 was John Kilmurray. Mezera was also his basketball coach, and Kilmurray said his teacher and coach made an impression that determined the direction of his own life.
“He is the reason I am a teacher still to this day,” Kilmurray said. “He was an inspiration for me, and I knew I wanted to be like him, a teacher and a coach.”
The relationship continued after Kilmurray left Mezera’s classroom. From 1970 through 1973, Kilmurray worked for his former teacher as a member of the Lacey Township Beach Patrol.
Then came a reversal neither could have predicted. In 1982, Kilmurray was selected as Lacey Township’s first recreation director. The former student and lifeguard was suddenly his old teacher’s boss. The two would work together for nearly three decades. It also strengthened a friendship that has now endured for 62 years.
“We worked well together in both the Beach Patrol and the Recreation Department, where Bud served in various other roles helping turn both into top-notch organizations,” Kilmurray said.
For Kilmurray, Mezera’s legacy is about more than recreation programs. “He is a man of honor,” Kilmurray said. “When I think of Bud, I think of the Lacey Township Beach Patrol and all it has developed into is because of Bud. Simply put, he is truly a ‘Lacey Legend.’”
Sixty Summers Of Change
The beach patrol evolved as Lacey changed around it. What began as a relatively informal summer operation became far more structured. Today’s guards must have lifeguard and waterfront certifications, and Mezera said the patrol had about 20 employees during his final season.
For Mezera, teaching and the beach patrol were never completely separate lives. Both revolved around young people, and eventually the generations overlapped. He found himself supervising lifeguards whose parents he had once taught.
Former students continued to recognize him long after leaving his classroom, something his wife, Carolyn, often witnessed. She remembers hearing from a former student who had struggled later in life but never forgot that Mezera had treated him the same as everyone else.
“He never judged them,” Carolyn said. “It wouldn’t matter where they were from. All the kids were the same to him.”
The beach patrol became part of the Mezera family as well. Bud and Carolyn have been married for 60 years, and she remembers bringing their identical twin sons, Greg and Jeff, to the beach in a playpen while Bud worked. Their third son, Christopher, came seven years later.
Eventually, all three sons worked on the beach patrol. All three also became teachers.
Passing It On
James Wioland, Lacey Township’s current recreation director, has worked alongside Mezera for the past 15 years and describes him as both a mentor and friend.
“Bud will be extremely missed by the recreation department and by the whole community,” Wioland said. “He has been a valued member of our team since the day I started here in Lacey Township and has been a great mentor and friend as I’ve gone through these last 15 years with him.”
“We hope that all the knowledge he has given us over the years can be passed down to the next generation of lifeguards and beach patrol, and continue to operate at a level that would make him proud,” he added.
Lacey Township recognized Mezera’s first 25 years with the beach patrol in 1992 by naming a park for him. He was honored again when he reached 50 years and received a gold beach badge.
One Last Beach Badge
Perhaps the simplest record of those years can be found on a plaque Mezera has kept. Long ago, he began saving a beach badge from every season. At first, he put them on his hat. When the metal pins began rusting through the fabric, an older gentleman made him a board where the badges could be permanently displayed.
From then on, Mezera attached another badge after each season ended. At the time of his interview, 59 were already there. The 60th would not be added until his final season was officially over.
It is difficult to fit six decades onto a plaque. There are no badges for the thousands of children who called him Mr. Mezera, the teenagers who reported to him for summer jobs, the former students who still stop him in stores or the sixth grader who grew up to become his boss and remained his friend for more than 60 years.
Asked what he would want someone to know about the man whose name is on the park, Mezera offered no grand assessment of his own accomplishments. He talked about teaching and the beach patrol, the two threads that ran alongside each other for most of his adult life.
For the first time since 1967, the next Lacey beach season will begin without Bud Mezera in charge. Young lifeguards will take their places, families will come to the beach, and another beach badge will mark another summer.
