On March 8, 1978, the same day as the first radio broadcast of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” David Shotwell, Jr. joined the E. H. Stokes Fire Company. Serving through various offices ranging from president of the fire company to chief of the fire department, he has served as clerk to the Board of Fire Commissioners since 2010.
David is graduate of the University of Delaware and Rutgers University, and post graduate study at George Washington University. He is a lifeguard, paramedic, and a lawyer when not engaged in any number of other distractions: drones, metal detecting, scuba diving, physical fitness, conch horns, trumpets, baritones, tubas and surfing (poorly).
Prior to joining the fire department, in 1973 he had the third largest fish caught by a youth on the Ocean Grove pier – inexplicably a 1 1/2 pound Amber Jack; April 1974 was the 5th caller to WJLK and won the 45 rpm single “Brain Salad Surgery” by Emerson Lake and Palmer. In 1980, he mastered the Dewey Decimal System sufficiently to catalog and move an industrial library and in 1983 was authorized to fire a cannon in the City of Newark, Delaware.
He is a member of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, volunteer with Bugles Across America, organizer of the Ocean Grove Christmas Band, active with Greater Shore Concert Band, Atlantic Wind Ensemble, Tuba Christmas, and Ocean Grove Summer Band; he is a former tenter, and a recovering Auditorium Usher.
OCEAN GROVE FIRE DEPARTMENT 