On the Oakland Waterfront,
Seafarers Club Breaks New Ground
Headed by former Port of
Oakland Public Relations Executive Bob Middleton
By Wes Starratt
Clergy who serve seafarers on
ships docked in San Francisco Bay recently celebrated a major
expansion to their office and hospitality center, which is located
adjacent to the Seventh Street Marine Terminal in the heart of the
Port of Oakland.
Known as the Seafarers Club, the
facility is operated by the Episcopal Church in partnership with
Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Presbyterians. Port chaplains
meet daily at the facility to plan visits to ships berthed at Bay
Area ports, while seafarers on shore leave use the facility for
recreation, phone calls, e-mails, and a wide range of other
services.
The Seafarers Club is an outgrowth
of the Sailor’s Institute, which was originally located on Steuart
Street near the San Francisco Ferry Building. Burned out in the 1906
Earthquake, the organization occupied various locations on the San
Francisco waterfront before moving to the Port of Oakland in 1971
when the name was changed to the Bay Area Seafarers Service.
Today, the coordinating chaplain
for the organization is Bob Middleton, a 20-year veteran of
community and media relations and former Communications Director of
the Port of Oakland. I have known Bob for some time, and he was, in
my estimation, a really first-rate public relations person who was
completely dedicated to the Port of Oakland. So, how did he end up a
chaplain? It’s a long story.
Bob was a key member of the Port
of Oakland’s staff at a time when containerization was in its
infancy, and Oakland was the first and the largest container port in
the world. Said Bob, "I really earned my paycheck by explaining
the new container hardware to visitors." Later, Bob found
himself in the middle of the very nasty Bay Area dredging battles
that pitted the Port against fishermen, farmers, and the entire
environmental community.
Finally, after 20 years of
defending the Port, he obviously had enough, and left in 1997. He
started attending divinity school part-time and tried the public
relations consulting field, but he found that "his heart wasn’t
really in the business." So when the position of Episcopal
Chaplain opened up at the Seafarers Club, he decided to try it,
while at the same time studying part-time to be an Episcopal deacon.
That was in 1999, and he has been there ever since. Here
"people really appreciate what you do for them," and that
apparently makes a big difference to Bob! People have obviously
become more important to Bob than the movement of containerized
cargo. We wish him well in his people-serving profession. People are
pretty important, after all!
