CONEY ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER THE LAST OF HIS KIND.
(CAPITAL REGION).
Source:Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) (May 8, 1995): pB2. (873 words)  
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Full Text :COPYRIGHT 1995 Albany Times Union


Byline: JERRY MARKON
Associated Press



NEW YORK

On the western tip of Coney Island, a 79-year-old man lives in a house by the sea, thinking about the days when being a lighthouse keeper really meant something. 

For 29 years, Frank Schubert wound a grandfather-clock-like mechanism each night that powered his rotating light. In foggy weather, if electricity went out, he tolled the 1,000-pound fog bell by hand with a sledgehammer. 

Many of the ships navigating New York harbor needed the flashing red beacon atop the 80-foot lighthouse in Schubert's front yard. Many of the ships needed him. 

Nowadays, there's not very much for America's last civilian lighthouse keeper to do. Schubert still cleans, cuts the grass and shows visitors around. Sometimes he changes a light bulb. 

Since 1989, an automatic motor and a computer-activated fog sensor have taken over most of the work. It's part of a Coast Guard program that has automated all but one of America's 600 working lighthouses. 

Schubert a vigorous man with leathery skin and receding white hair has lived alone with his dog, Blazer, since his wife died in 1986. He is not bitter about his diminished role. 

``They just made my job a little easier, that's all,'' says Schubert, who has not taken a vacation in more than 30 years. ``This is my home, and I've been here so long I don't want a change.'' 

The Coast Guard is also content with its part-time employee who draws a pension and lives rent-free. Jim McGranachan, a Coast Guard spokesman, estimates Schubert's salary is about $14,000 a year. 

``We need Schubert over there to stop vandals and maintain the grounds,'' McGranachan says. ``He's the last of the civilian lighthouse keepers. There's nobody like him in the whole country.'' 

Lighthouse keeping was a dying tradition long before Schubert came to Coney Island in 1960. 

America's first lighthouse was built in Boston Harbor in 1716 and generations of ship captains relied on lighthouses for safe navigation. During this century, electronic guidance equipment gradually reduced their importance. 

Advances in automation occurred over the years and in 1985 the Coast Guard perfected a system to run lighthouses electronically and monitor them by computer, said Coast Guard Lt. Chad Asplund. By 1991, all lighthouses except Boston Harbor had been automated, and all the old keepers were gone except Schubert and those in Boston. 

Since the Boston keepers are Coast Guard personnel, Schubert is considered the country's last civilian lighthouse keeper. 

Ironically, while the importance of lighthouses has waned, interest in them has soared, says Wayne Wheeler, president of the San Francisco-based U.S. Lighthouse Society. He attributes this to nostalgia and the historic preservation movement. 

``There are lighthouse models, T-shirts, hats, earrings,'' Wheeler says. ``We're called about every day by a company that wants us to sponsor some lighthouse product.'' 

It wasn't nostalgia or even a love for the sea that made Schubert become a seaman in 1939. He needed a job. 

``I had no idea what I wanted to do,'' recalls Schubert, who grew up on Staten Island. ``Jobs were scarce. There was a depression on.'' 

Schubert parlayed his first job on a buoy tender, which delivered supplies to lighthouses, into a series of positions operating lighthouses around New York. 

After working at Governor's Island for 15 years, Schubert and his family came to Coney Island and took up residence in the two-story red and white brick house. The main channel of New York harbor is 100 yards from the front door. 

``It was real interesting growing up,'' recalls Schubert's daughter, Francine Goldstein. ``It was easy to make friends, telling people my father was a lighthouse keeper. It's a great conversation-starter.'' 

Each night, Schubert ascended the white steel tower to turn a metal crank for 15 to 20 minutes. That wound a drum and caused a 40-pound weight to rise to the top of a steel tube inside the tower. 

As the weight slowly dropped over the next 24 hours, it ran the clock under the lens. The clock rotated the light, allowing it to show its signature flashes to ships in the vicinity. 

Schubert maintained the fog bell and operated it if power was out. An alarm bell by the front door alerted him if a light bulb needed to be changed in the tower. 

Schubert's favorite memories include watching the Verrazano Bridge being built 1 miles to the north in 1964; rescuing at least 15 sailors over theyears from boats that went aground on the rocks and having lunch at the White House with President George Bush. 

``He was nuts about lighthouses,'' says Schubert, who proudly displays a photo of himself talking with Bush in the Oval Office. 

Today, the Coney Island light, visible for 14 miles, is still used by small boats that don't have electronic equipment. Four other lighthouses also help guide ships into and out of the harbor. 

Schubert's only operational role is to occasionally change a light bulb in a power surge during a thunderstorm. Otherwise, he spends his time woodworking, bowling and laying yellowed old charts on his kitchen table to show visitors how things used to be. 

``Lighthouse keeping is a lost art today, and I'm very proud that he's the last one,'' says Schubert's daughter.





Source Citation:"CONEY ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER THE LAST OF HIS KIND." Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) (May 8, 1995): B2. New York State Newspapers. Gale. New York Public Library. 17 Aug. 2009