by B.J. Carter
Coastal Journal staff

I was born in Brooklyn.  Born and raised there, went to high school there, and then I joined the Navy in 1972.  I had first come to Bath to commission the USS Alvarez in January of ‘77. 

And you’ve been here ever since?

On and off.  I met my wife here, she’s from Bath, and when I got out of the Navy in 1980 I went to work for BIW.  After awhile I decided that the retirement system in the Navy was much better than the retirement system at BIW, so I went back into the Navy.  My intention was to do another 12 years in the Navy and retire.  I ended up doing 17 years, but that’s OK [laughs].

That’s a popular story.

I had family that had served in the Navy . . . my brothers and uncles and things like that.  My father was a New York City homicide detective for 22 years, so there was no real pressure from him.  He served on the police force during the war, he wasn’t actually in the war.  He had some interesting stories though.

I’m sure.

It just intrigued me.  I almost went into the Air Force, but I thought the Navy would offer a little more adventure, a little more of what I wanted to do. 

What did your mom do?

She had nine kids first of all, so that was a full time job.  I was the youngest, and after I was born she went to work for an oil company in New York.  She took the orders and scheduled delivers.  Whale Oil Company, that’s what it was called. 

Do you ever get back to New York?

Sometimes.  Of all my brothers and sisters I have one who still lives in Brooklyn.  The rest are all in Jersey or Staten Island . . . spread out in the same general area.  I’m the only one who’s actually moved away. 

Were you a sports fan growing up?

Oh yeah.  I was born on the verge of the end of the Brooklyn Dodgers era, they left New York in ‘58.  My family were devoted Dodgers fans, so nobody hates the Yankees more than we do [laughs]!  I grew up primarily as a Mets fan, I still like National League baseball, but now I’m a Red Sox fan, they’re my passion.  I go to quite a few games every year.  And I’m still a Jets fan. I’m not a Patriots fan, though. 

You think the Patriots have a decent shot at winning it all this year?

I think they’ve got a shot, but I’ve got to show a little loyalty to the old Giants.

Didn’t you say you were a Jets fan growing up?

Well, kinda both.  When you live in New York, the rivalry in football isn’t like baseball.  I’m primarily a Jets fan, but I liked them both when I was growing up.  My brother’s had season tickets to the Giants for 50 years.  I’ve seen the Giants play in Yankee Stadium, I saw the game where the Jets beat the Oakland Raiders at Shea Stadium the year they went to the Super Bowl.  I was there!  It was phenomenal.

You mentioned that you have kids?

I have three, they’re all grown.  My oldest daughter works for a library support company in Cambridge, she lives in Boston.  My son is in a management training program for the parent company here [at the Holiday Inn].  He spent last summer working as the front office manager at a hotel in Bar Harbor - the Bar Harbor Regency.  Now he’s down at one of our hotels acting as a controller in New Jersey.  He’ll be coming back to Maine for the spring, getting ready for the next tourist season.  He might be getting his own hotel as a general manager somewhere, we’re hoping for that anyway.  And then my youngest daughter, who just announced her engagement, lives right here in Bath.  She owns a house with her fiance and they’re getting married this summer.  She’s currently in between full-time jobs, though she still works here at the inn on a part time basis.

Is her fiance alright?

Great guy, he’s a keeper.  It’s like getting another son. 

Tell me about the transition from being in the Navy and working on ships at BIW to working as a hotel manager.

It was a little scary.  I had some discussions with Tom Welsh, who was the owner of this property before I got here.  He had called me a couple of years before I retired and asked me when I coming to work for him.  I told him I didn’t know anything about running a hotel, but he said, “If you can run a ship, you can run a hotel.”  He had a lot of confidence in me.  I had to learn a few things, but it wasn’t rocket science, it’s all about taking care of people and taking care of your employees.  That’s what I did in the Navy.  Good company to work for, they treat me and the other employees really well.

I understand you’re pretty involved in the community?

Yeah, I’ve been involved with the Chamber of Commerce for a number of years, currently serve on the Board of Directors.  I’m past-president of the Board.  I like to keep my fingers in there because I think it’s great for the business community.  I also like to stay involved with the Chocolate Church and support them, I’m a member of the Board of Trustees.  I’m involved in a lot of organization, and even if I’m not real active in them, I’m there when they need me.  The Elks, Knights of Columbus, American Legion, Fleet Reserve Association, the Navy League; all those things are important to me, they do great things for the community.

Speaking of local business, what’s your sense of how strong the local economy is right now?

Obviously we’re in a down-time economically, the cost of fuel, especially here in the winter, drives that.  But we’re a tourist-based economy, the population explodes in the summer time, that’s what drives us.  Right now, it’s a tough situation, and then the beginning of the BRAC process has already started.  The families from the first squadron who’ll be deploying in a couple of months have already started to leave.  We’re seeing the effects of that right now.  I served on the BRAC task-force that served as a committee to Congress to try and save the base, and everything we told them would happen if they closed BNAS is already happening.  Anybody who’s in any kind of leadership position in the economic community would be doing us a disservice to say that this is going to be easy.  It’s going to be a tough, tough, long haul.  We’ll get through it, and we’re going to come out on top, but it won’t be tomorrow.  We’re talking about losing 7,500 jobs between the military and the rest of the community, that’s a lot more than the numbers thrown out there.  I think the local redevelopment committee is doing OK, but I think the public needs to be aware that it’s going to be tough around here the next few years.