Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Ocean Safety Lieutenant Bill Ingram on retiring after nearly 46 years on the job

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Ocean Safety Lieutenant Bill Ingram on retiring after nearly 46 years on the job · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to The One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, June 12th, 2025.
• 0:20
  And this week we're joined by former Ocean Safety Lieutenant Bill Ingram,
• 0:24
  who just retired after 45 plus years on the job.
• 0:29
  Well that's incredible. Thank you for making time for us.
• 0:31
  Oh you're welcome. So it's nice to be here.
• 0:33
  It's a really beautiful building.
• 0:35
  And I love the walk downtown.
• 0:37
  Yeah. You're a beach, guys.
• 0:38
  I don't know how often you come to Honolulu. Hello.
• 0:40
  Very often.
• 0:41
  So, Bill, tell me exactly how long you are with ocean safety.
• 0:46
  I started in 1979.
• 0:47
  I actually was, was hired under the sea to program full time lifeguard.
• 0:53
  I, I get picked up at the Manoa pool one day, swimming by our,
• 0:58
  past operations chief, Buster Wahlberg.
• 1:01
  And, he asked me if I knew anything about swimming and lifeguarding,
• 1:04
  and I said about my whole life and said what?
• 1:06
  And I, we talked a little bit, and then I showed up at the offices
• 1:10
  over in Pocky, in Pocky Park and, right opposite Kapiolani there.
• 1:16
  And, it was amazing. I had these little,
• 1:20
  I guess huts are homes there,
• 1:21
  and I, I signed up and the next day they after that I was working. So.
• 1:26
  So what is it?
• 1:27
  I mean, obviously, you're showing some skill, some level of expertise.
• 1:30
  When you were just swimming laps, what did he see in you?
• 1:33
  What did you have a background in swimming or what was.
• 1:35
  My my father was my father was, colleagues coordinator for a school district
• 1:39
  in Pennsylvania.
• 1:40
  And then he wrote a curriculum for the state of Pennsylvania
• 1:42
  to make it mandatory to have swimming in the state.
• 1:45
  So, I've known swimming my whole life.
• 1:47
  I can't actually remember a time when I haven't been able to swim.
• 1:50
  And, I have a background.
• 1:53
  I was certified all the way up through instructors in both in first
• 1:57
  aid, in in lifeguard saving and ocean lifeguard saving.
• 2:02
  With the American red cross.
• 2:03
  And I mean, I was started up all the way to the max that you can do at my job.
• 2:09
  And I done that in the mainland, both at swimming pools and country clubs.
• 2:13
  And I also applied and worked for a beach at one point in time. So.
• 2:18
  So you were hand picked or was this something?
• 2:19
  It kind of sounds like this was something you're always meant to do.
• 2:22
  You know, it's really true.
• 2:24
  I really fell into the perfect job.
• 2:26
  The job I always wanted, I always wanted to be a professional athlete.
• 2:30
  The lifeguards are. Professionals, right? Yeah.
• 2:32
  And, and and I always wanted to do that full time.
• 2:36
  But the opportunities on the mainland with,
• 2:38
  you know, the four seasons and everything, I come from the East coast
• 2:42
  and the four seasons and all, you only you have a maybe a four month period
• 2:45
  where you can actually get a job, like the job I had for 45 years.
• 2:50
  Right.
• 2:50
  So and, and it's never full time and it's, it's
• 2:54
  never with the most incredible workers that,
• 2:56
  I mean, I work with people who are so sold in the water, it's almost it's it's
• 3:00
  breathtaking to think about all the things they can do and, and that they were it.
• 3:05
  We all work together to make, make it safe for the people in Hawaii.
• 3:08
  And it's still that way today.
• 3:10
  It's going to remain that way.
• 3:11
  We're going to get even better
• 3:12
  because we've got our own department now, thanks to the mayors.
• 3:14
  Really cool. So so take us back to day one.
• 3:16
  Do you remember day one on the job?
• 3:18
  Yes, I do, yeah, I do. What was it like?
• 3:21
  Oh I like I said, my very first day on the job, they were paying me.
• 3:25
  I went down and filled out all the paperwork.
• 3:27
  So it was mostly paperwork. That was pretty boring.
• 3:29
  You know.
• 3:30
  But eventually they got me.
• 3:31
  They got me into Waikiki, and I worked at the the to the to Alpha lifeguard tower.
• 3:36
  At that time, it was a one man tower. It was a wooden tower.
• 3:39
  And it was in front of, the Outrigger Hotel and Outrigger Main.
• 3:44
  And, I sat out there in extraordinarily crowded beach.
• 3:47
  Yeah.
• 3:49
  Maybe a couple thousand people in the water.
• 3:51
  It was, With just you.
• 3:53
  That's that's. That's natural. Yeah.
• 3:56
  So what was the learning curve like?
• 3:58
  Because, like you said, you know, pools at country clubs.
• 4:00
  And here in Hawaii, the ocean is not like the Long Island Sound.
• 4:03
  I'm sure there was some learning curve.
• 4:05
  Oh, well, there is and there isn't.
• 4:06
  I mean,
• 4:07
  I actually go to beaches on the East Coast in new Jersey where we had 15,
• 4:11
  20,000 people in the water.
• 4:12
  Yeah, holidays.
• 4:13
  So, you know, I mean, you go to Memorial Day or 4th of July, right?
• 4:17
  It's a memorial day is insane.
• 4:19
  And East Coast weather's nice.
• 4:21
  It's, in fact, they're traffic jams, driving and people come in
• 4:24
  late in the afternoon and say, well, we took all day to get here
• 4:26
  because the traffic was so bad to get to the seashore.
• 4:29
  So I have worked with large crowds and, I've also worked in a school district
• 4:34
  that had a recreation program where we'd have about 500 kids
• 4:38
  and the kids in a war in a pool, you know, in 100 meter pool or 50 meter.
• 4:42
  Most of your pools.
• 4:44
  And and it was just it was nuts.
• 4:46
  It, you know, you were looking at bodies.
• 4:48
  You couldn't put people more people in.
• 4:50
  There were just all kids, the kids you know. Yeah.
• 4:53
  So with your background, before you even came to Hawaii,
• 4:55
  do you remember the first time you ever rescued someone?
• 4:58
  I was, I think I was eight years old.
• 5:00
  Oh, my. Goodness.
• 5:01
  And, if they actually at my father's pool that he ran
• 5:06
  and, I,
• 5:08
  I looked over and saw that the person was in trouble,
• 5:12
  and and I yelled, my dad, I'm going to add and and he
• 5:16
  he looked at where he was sitting at the desk, and he saw what I had done.
• 5:19
  And there was a kid in the water
• 5:21
  was getting swimming lessons, but had wandered away from the instructor
• 5:24
  that was there, and I just jumped in and went underneath water, went underneath
• 5:28
  and picked him up from the bottom and just took them out for service.
• 5:31
  Oh my goodness. Yeah, it was pretty wild.
• 5:34
  I knew it, I did that, I felt so proud.
• 5:37
  Like, okay, this is pretty neat you know.
• 5:38
  Yeah yeah yeah. So it's it's been that way.
• 5:42
  And then I pulled my first full size person out at age 11.
• 5:46
  So again, I was working with my father, and,
• 5:49
  the really big guy was about 185, 95 pound guy.
• 5:53
  And he,
• 5:54
  and he walked out of the locker rooms and jumped into the water in the deep
• 5:58
  end, not knowing that it was the deep end and went straight to the bottom.
• 6:01
  And, I was about 5 or 10 yards away on the other side of the deck
• 6:06
  and maybe at the corner of the deck, and I just drove across the corner, drove
• 6:10
  because he went straight down and he did struggle with.
• 6:13
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  And, I, I picked him up from underneath the arms and it swam to the surface.
• 6:19
  It's there.
• 6:20
  It's easier.
• 6:21
  I mean, I wasn't a very big, kid, but,
• 6:25
  but I was smart enough, and it swam really well, but then I could swim.
• 6:29
  I could swim all the strokes, you know? Yeah.
• 6:31
  And and I've been swimming as a kid just to just enjoy it.
• 6:35
  So I, I think, I recognized that was the thing
• 6:38
  I could recognize when someone was having trouble and distress.
• 6:41
  And again, I yelled when I went into the water.
• 6:44
  And that's another
• 6:45
  great thing about communication is if someone else knows,
• 6:47
  you know, that somebody is probably get are going to get some help.
• 6:49
  For you, right.
• 6:50
  And help. You. Yeah. And the the guy was all right.
• 6:53
  I brought him up.
• 6:53
  He sucked a lot of water. You move.
• 6:56
  But he was okay.
• 6:57
  And, and, you know, he coughed a little bit.
• 7:00
  We pat on his back a little and and, Yeah.
• 7:02
  So back then, we didn't they didn't have a mouth to mouth.
• 7:05
  So, you did.
• 7:07
  Oh. I'm in back pressure arm lift method.
• 7:10
  And so that's an antiquated,
• 7:12
  artificial respiration for people.
• 7:15
  Yeah. So we've gotten smart.
• 7:16
  Now they know that most people can take about 7 or 8 minutes
• 7:19
  of not having air, but they can't take 7 or 8 minutes without having a heartbeat.
• 7:23
  So that's a that's why the CPR really,
• 7:26
  really made a big difference in almost all of our cases that we have.
• 7:29
  And yeah, I know if people have asked you this, but
• 7:32
  if you had to guess how many people have you rescued every time we done CPR?
• 7:37
  It's funny.
• 7:37
  You know,
• 7:37
  I sat there trying to think, okay, this is probably going to be a question
• 7:40
  if I get it, but it is.
• 7:42
  It's got to be in the thousands.
• 7:44
  It might be in the tens of thousands.
• 7:46
  Yeah.
• 7:46
  And that's not even taking into account preventative measures. Right.
• 7:48
  I'm sure you've had to tell so many visitors to our islands, locals as well.
• 7:52
  And and the thing is, you think, oh, I can't possibly be.
• 7:54
  And then you start adding up the days and it will actually maybe,
• 7:57
  maybe it is possible because, I didn't work full time
• 8:02
  as in the pools because I in the beginning as a kid.
• 8:05
  Right.
• 8:06
  But, I mean, I was around there all the time
• 8:08
  when I need free time was there with my father, so.
• 8:10
  And, I put a lot of young kids out of the water,
• 8:13
  a lot of kids walking around the streets.
• 8:15
  Now, those in the 60s and 70s, you know,
• 8:18
  that are that are, that are alive because, you know, I pull them out.
• 8:22
  Yeah.
• 8:23
  Yeah. So, yeah.
• 8:24
  So like we said, 45 plus years.
• 8:27
  So we're going to say 46.
• 8:28
  What kept you in it for so long?
• 8:32
  That it was easy.
• 8:34
  I mean.
• 8:35
  Well, for not everyone.
• 8:37
  For me it was really easy.
• 8:38
  I just got I got really fortunate and like, I said, I landed my dream job.
• 8:42
  I didn't think I could ever do that in the U.S..
• 8:44
  Possible.
• 8:46
  My father actually came out to Hawaii before he passed away.
• 8:49
  He had cancer.
• 8:50
  And before he passed away, he was so proud.
• 8:52
  And, and I thought, oh, gee, you know, and he says, well, I'm even more proud
• 8:56
  because he says, you come from a really this this is an amazing place.
• 9:00
  And then he started telling me about Duke Kahanamoku
• 9:02
  and the swim coaches and how the kids used to swim in the,
• 9:07
  the streams that they ran through for the irrigation of the cane fields
• 9:10
  and everything. And I said, how do you notice?
• 9:12
  He says, he says, I'm an aquatics coordinator, I have to know this.
• 9:16
  And he says, and I, I and he was a really great coach, too.
• 9:19
  And he knew about like, you know, both he and white rice Miller
• 9:23
  and of milk who had a kind of a thing going on together.
• 9:26
  He knew all about the my father
• 9:28
  quote, the times that he did in that pool, you know.
• 9:32
  Yeah, yeah.
• 9:33
  And, and and then I, I took him for a tour there, which just blew his mind
• 9:38
  and explained to me
• 9:38
  exactly how all the baffling and everything works in, in, in that pool.
• 9:43
  And he said, there are three of these in the world, Bill.
• 9:45
  And he said, you've got the best, you have the best made one.
• 9:49
  And and I said, well, and it was really amazing,
• 9:53
  but I kind of just fell into it.
• 9:54
  It it worked out really nicely that I could do those things
• 9:58
  that were most important for me to have the job, and I did them well,
• 10:02
  and I'd had some management jobs before, so I kind of knew, you know, hey,
• 10:06
  I can make it up, I can go up the ranks if I want to,
• 10:09
  but I really, really enjoy being a lifeguard, I always have.
• 10:12
  I'm pretty attentive guy.
• 10:14
  I've watched a lot of people in the in the water like that.
• 10:17
  That's got to be in the millions.
• 10:18
  I probably see millions and millions of people in the water.
• 10:21
  So yeah, you know, it was interesting.
• 10:23
  So you worked for your dad.
• 10:25
  You know, growing up,
• 10:26
  he was almost like someone that you looked up to because
• 10:28
  you kind of follow in his footsteps, this aquatics and and saving people.
• 10:31
  But then when he comes to Hawaii and you're already established in your career
• 10:35
  and he tells you how much it meant to him
• 10:37
  that he, you know, knew all this Hawaiian history
• 10:40
  and he knew about Duke Kahanamoku and had all these relationships.
• 10:42
  And then, of course, about the natatorium and the pools and I mean, the mechanics.
• 10:46
  And he it meant so much to him.
• 10:47
  But you want to figure that out later.
• 10:49
  Usually people know it early on.
• 10:50
  It's kind of like their why.
• 10:51
  Right. I'm going to go to Hawaii and be a lifeguard
• 10:53
  because it means so much to my dad. It means to watch my family.
• 10:56
  But he told you so much later in your life.
• 10:59
  What was that experience like? That's usually not the order.
• 11:01
  It happens for most people. No.
• 11:02
  And it was a really great experience because I sat there on the beach.
• 11:06
  We actually went to Fort Drew Sea.
• 11:08
  And, and I could point out that, well, you see that tower there?
• 11:11
  That's that's where I remember my work my first day and, and my,
• 11:15
  my dad explained to me what he had done when he was a young man about my age.
• 11:19
  And he'd gone to new Jersey and he'd worked at a couple of the, the,
• 11:23
  beaches and the pools and which is pretty phenomenal in itself there.
• 11:26
  They wouldn't hire him as a lifeguard on the beach,
• 11:28
  because my father had gotten polio as a kid and then,
• 11:32
  and had a more leg brace and, that's, that's another really funny story, but
• 11:38
  but the thing is, is
• 11:39
  he, he he knew the responsibility that I had.
• 11:42
  He knew I could handle it.
• 11:43
  And he said he was really proud of me.
• 11:45
  And he says, you know, I iss, I iss, you got the dream job.
• 11:48
  He says, you're a professional athlete in an area where you will excel at.
• 11:52
  He says, you've got all the other skills.
• 11:54
  And I had a degree.
• 11:55
  I got I got college educated, I went to two different schools.
• 11:59
  And, and the nice thing is, is I could apply them
• 12:04
  those, those two forms of education that I received into
• 12:08
  the management of, of my own personal life and the people around me and with me.
• 12:13
  I mean, I knew eventually
• 12:14
  I wanted to be a leader of the people that were so fantastic that I worked with.
• 12:18
  But I didn't want to be.
• 12:19
  I didn't want to be off the beach, and I didn't want to go.
• 12:22
  I mean,
• 12:23
  I initially,
• 12:23
  I wanted to rise to captain, but I didn't know if I wanted to be inside.
• 12:27
  Yeah, yeah, that's. Usually what they do.
• 12:29
  And after I watched the captain work and work for him
• 12:31
  quite a few times over the years, I just realized, you know,
• 12:34
  I really enjoy being out on the beach the best way to do that.
• 12:37
  And they had initiated the tenants tenant front.
• 12:39
  Right.
• 12:40
  And at that point, I just moved right into that and enjoyed it.
• 12:44
  You know, you said it was easy and I said, no, it's not easy for everyone.
• 12:48
  So it's my understanding that for ocean safety, lifeguards still have to pass
• 12:51
  a physical exam. Yeah. What is that.
• 12:54
  Okay. Exactly.
• 12:56
  Every year you get retested.
• 12:57
  It's re annual recertification.
• 12:59
  And they called Artie.
• 13:01
  And, and what you do, the T stands
• 13:04
  for training and your recertification and training.
• 13:07
  You go and you run, you run down the beach a thousand yards, okay?
• 13:11
  And around a it's a done it element to Beach park.
• 13:14
  And then you run around that one Echo Tower,
• 13:16
  and then you jump back in the water and you swim back a thousand yards.
• 13:19
  And that has to be done in 25 minutes or less.
• 13:22
  And then, within about 3 to 10 minutes,
• 13:25
  you will do a 400 meter paddle.
• 13:28
  Okay.
• 13:29
  And a 100 by 100 by 100 meter run, swim, run.
• 13:34
  All right.
• 13:34
  And those are done.
• 13:35
  Usually done is goes on.
• 13:37
  It gets a little closer interval in between.
• 13:39
  So by the time you get to the third event which is the run swim
• 13:42
  run or the paddle, depending on how they decide to play at that day.
• 13:46
  You're pretty tuckered out, but,
• 13:48
  you, you realize that, you know, this is an elite group of people.
• 13:51
  I mean, some of those people can do that.
• 13:53
  Run, swim and do it in the low sixteens or 15 minutes.
• 13:57
  Okay.
• 13:58
  And which is pretty fast. Okay.
• 14:01
  That's it's near Olympic speed,
• 14:03
  but we've had a couple of guys that either been alternates or Olympics
• 14:06
  or Olympic swimmers or are considered world class swimmers working with us.
• 14:11
  So, I, I think I qualify
• 14:14
  with the 1655, which isn't bad.
• 14:17
  I've never been the very best or the very fastest, but,
• 14:20
  but I'm not bad, and I could I could still make it under 20 minutes.
• 14:23
  My last year I been I've been unfortunate.
• 14:27
  Had a couple accidents and things that occurred that I couldn't avoid.
• 14:30
  There's nothing I could do about,
• 14:31
  but I try to maintain my health every, all the years.
• 14:34
  So, in addition to all that,
• 14:36
  the physical testing and then we go through, we we take exams,
• 14:40
  we take tests on, all the basic knowledge about our pulmonary resuscitation
• 14:45
  or our handling of spinal injuries, everything about entry and exit of water.
• 14:50
  And then we go and do, practical sports situations where we work on the surfboard,
• 14:55
  we work with the ski, learning how to pick up people and same thing,
• 14:59
  and putting a large person on a very large board and then paddling them in.
• 15:04
  And we do scenarios actually,
• 15:05
  and surf the surf conditions
• 15:07
  that we would normally have depending on where we work.
• 15:09
  So North Shore, you got to work in the big stuff.
• 15:12
  You know, you get to work in the big waves South Shore.
• 15:14
  We get over about 8 to 10ft.
• 15:16
  But usually not working in big waves
• 15:18
  all the time, most of the way through the 3 to 7ft range.
• 15:21
  If you have wave action and I think,
• 15:24
  well do you make very many ocean rescues?
• 15:27
  I could almost count on knowing I'd go out at least twice a month.
• 15:31
  Okay.
• 15:31
  And go out and make a rescue in the water on a board.
• 15:34
  So you have to have paddling skills,
• 15:36
  and that's another reason why you they get big tests in the paddling.
• 15:40
  And of course you have to be able to run
• 15:41
  and you have to be able to swim and you have to have the fitness level.
• 15:43
  Once you get there, the, you know, dead be tired, that you can't assist somebody.
• 15:47
  You never swimming.
• 15:48
  For one, you're always swimming for two or more people.
• 15:51
  So and there are more people.
• 15:52
  Something right out here.
• 15:54
  But I guess, Bill,
• 15:55
  I mean, the real question is how how did you stay in this type of shapes?
• 16:00
  I mean, sub20 is pretty incredible.
• 16:02
  Even you're in your 50s, 60s, and you're kind of going up against the
• 16:06
  guys are just getting into the department that are like 17 years old.
• 16:09
  Okay.
• 16:09
  Well, I've, I've always been I can't sit still.
• 16:13
  Okay. That's that that's a probably always helped.
• 16:16
  I'm really athletic.
• 16:17
  I, I excelled in three different sports.
• 16:20
  I ran, one of Hawaii's largest bicycling teams for about eight, nine years.
• 16:25
  I was the president of the team.
• 16:28
  I was also.
• 16:29
  I did triathlons for, I think, nine, 18 or 19 years.
• 16:34
  I've run 13 Honolulu Marathon fans, one unofficial,
• 16:38
  12 official,
• 16:41
  I mean, I, I run, I swim,
• 16:43
  I ride bike, I, I hike a lot.
• 16:46
  I used to do a lot of hunting and I walked all over Monica I'm on,
• 16:49
  I'm on a little on the Big Island. I've actually.
• 16:52
  Some people say you walk, right? Yeah.
• 16:53
  Oh, yeah, we walk. But back then, I'm not certain if it was totally legal.
• 16:56
  But I walk across park, a little training area, which definitely was illegal.
• 16:59
  Right.
• 17:00
  Should we leave that in this podcast.
• 17:02
  Or if it wasn't okay.
• 17:04
  But but I didn't know. You know.
• 17:05
  And the funny thing is, where I walked through this, there were no
• 17:09
  there was no fence. And so I started out and walked across.
• 17:11
  I mean, I must've got about I think that I think that is like
• 17:14
  nine miles across, eight and a half or nine miles across.
• 17:17
  I think I got seven miles in before I saw my first no trespassing signs.
• 17:20
  So I've gone. It's a little late. Well.
• 17:25
  So I guess I kind of allude to my next question.
• 17:27
  Well, what are you going to be doing in retirement?
• 17:28
  It kind of sounds like you just keep busy.
• 17:30
  Yeah, I do, I mean, I still go to the beach pretty regularly right now.
• 17:33
  I'm helping a friend who's a really good guy.
• 17:34
  He's he's got, hip problems.
• 17:36
  He's an older gentleman and, but he's he's a fantastic guy.
• 17:39
  He's a he, he I did Aqua Therapeutics.
• 17:42
  So my dad at lunch time
• 17:43
  with all the professional athletes out of out of Philadelphia,
• 17:47
  a baseball players, a football players, a basketball players,
• 17:50
  they all came into my father's pool and they were injured,
• 17:53
  and they did aqua therapy with him because he had he had basically done
• 17:56
  his own aqua physical therapy to to overcome his polio.
• 17:59
  At one point it was him walking with a full brace.
• 18:01
  He had a little shorty brace on from his calf down.
• 18:04
  And, so, I mean, and he was extraordinarily, educated and knew a lot.
• 18:10
  And my dad was a really bright guy.
• 18:12
  He could read anything and never forget it.
• 18:14
  He could remember everybody's names. Yeah.
• 18:15
  Like my dad said, my my mom said my dad had 2600 people come to us for.
• 18:20
  Oh my. Goodness.
• 18:20
  And she said she brought a little shoe box
• 18:22
  to put the letters in with that last at all.
• 18:24
  About 15 minutes.
• 18:26
  Yeah.
• 18:26
  Everyone bring it everywhere.
• 18:27
  She had to go get a cardboard box.
• 18:29
  It handled paper towels. Yeah.
• 18:32
  Put the letters and things.
• 18:33
  And so the people, when my father passed away, he helped.
• 18:36
  He really assisted me
• 18:37
  and helped me learn what you need to do and how you need to interact with people.
• 18:41
  I mean, let's face it, as a nine, ten, 11
• 18:44
  and even a 14 year old kid, I had the best sports card collection of anybody.
• 18:48
  I had signed teams,
• 18:50
  all the teams that the guys would come and I'd work with him in the water
• 18:53
  and he couldn't believe this, like 10 or 11 year old kid
• 18:55
  or 13 year old kids showing them how to get more physically adapt.
• 18:58
  Yeah.
• 18:59
  And what motions they need to do and go through it.
• 19:02
  And so for me, that's one thing I'm doing right now as a volunteer.
• 19:05
  I'm not giving, I'm not doing it.
• 19:06
  I'm also going to teach people how to swim.
• 19:08
  I've taught thousands and thousands and thousands of people how to swim,
• 19:11
  almost all of them kids.
• 19:12
  But I also did adults. Yeah,
• 19:15
  yeah, I mean that that takes me back to I know I saw some pictures
• 19:18
  from your retirement ceremony on your last day on the job.
• 19:21
  I know that you made your final call, but like you said, right?
• 19:23
  Your dad remembered everyone's names.
• 19:25
  It was evident from his funeral
• 19:27
  that he made an impact in literally every person he met.
• 19:30
  And I think that I think that that can be said about you, Bill.
• 19:33
  I've only known you for a few.
• 19:35
  What is this, 20 minutes now?
• 19:36
  But I know that a lot of people showed up on your phone,
• 19:38
  and a lot of people said that you've made an impact.
• 19:40
  A lot of people said that, you know.
• 19:41
  Yeah. So I was humbled by that.
• 19:44
  I was totally humbled.
• 19:45
  I just sat there with, whoa.
• 19:47
  What was it you weren't expecting that?
• 19:49
  I mean. No, I really wasn't.
• 19:51
  And, I'm a I'm kind of a personal person of my own, you know?
• 19:55
  And and yet, if people want help and they know they're going to come to me
• 19:58
  because, you know, they want help, but it really is difficult for me to, you know,
• 20:04
  see that someone can make a big excuse.
• 20:08
  I'm breaking up here.
• 20:09
  Someone can make a really big impression on someone that's young
• 20:13
  and and and and trying to do really well at something.
• 20:17
  And almost every one of the people we work with are that they're that called
• 20:22
  they're they would give their life for people they absolutely don't know
• 20:25
  and bend would go out.
• 20:27
  And for them, it's part fun when you're young
• 20:30
  and when you get older, you start realize, hey, I'm messing around here.
• 20:33
  I can't be messing around
• 20:34
  because this is really this affects everybody that they run into.
• 20:39
  They're all their friends, all their family.
• 20:41
  They're there, the people that they know.
• 20:44
  And so if you let something or someone come to harm in front of you,
• 20:47
  you know, shame on you, you know, and that's and everyone thinks that way.
• 20:50
  I mean, they know that there's some there's some me
• 20:53
  I can't begin to tell you, the women in the men that I worked with
• 20:57
  who are just absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal in the water.
• 21:01
  But their personality is they're people.
• 21:03
  People completely. Right.
• 21:05
  But but not everyone is a people person and not everyone is.
• 21:09
  You know, the way I look at it is
• 21:11
  you always remember how someone makes you feel.
• 21:13
  Yeah, right.
• 21:14
  You can meet someone and, you know, like, say, like me.
• 21:17
  I'm not. I'm not like your dad. I'm not good with names.
• 21:19
  You know, but you but you always remember how someone makes you feel.
• 21:22
  So, you know, the younger folks that came into the department that you met,
• 21:26
  maybe you don't remember every single thing you told them, but
• 21:29
  obviously something in your interaction made them feel good.
• 21:32
  Yeah, yeah.
• 21:33
  What's your advice for those coming in?
• 21:35
  Because, you know, there needs to be another Bill Ingram there, like you said,
• 21:39
  to make sure that these people are people, people that they make sure that,
• 21:41
  you know, you can't mess around
• 21:43
  because these are people's lives that you're dealing with.
• 21:44
  And, and it's it's a certain way that you talk to people too, right?
• 21:48
  Yeah. And that's that's a really good question.
• 21:50
  And, and, you know, besides the hurdles of just getting into the department, it's
• 21:54
  not they're not easy tests.
• 21:55
  I mean, we've had we've had world class lifeguards come here
• 21:59
  and come and say, well, you know, you have a rigorous entry level.
• 22:03
  Well, you can't even
• 22:04
  you can't even make it in the department to get trained until you pass that test.
• 22:08
  And, and there's a written exam as well, and you have to be eligible.
• 22:12
  But once you get past the knowledge, I think the best thing is, is
• 22:16
  you need to treat people.
• 22:17
  You need to treat people how you would like to be treated.
• 22:19
  And you better remember that people spend a lot of that,
• 22:22
  especially the visitors that come here.
• 22:24
  The tours, they spend a fortune to come here
• 22:27
  and, and, and they want to be treated,
• 22:30
  you know, they want to be treated especially because it is a special place.
• 22:34
  It's I when I came here, my first beach ever went to
• 22:38
  was Almont and Beach Park, and I and
• 22:41
  I went down there because my sister said, oh, you'll love it because you can swim.
• 22:43
  You can swim all day there. You know, there's this big long channel.
• 22:46
  And but the thing is, it's it's not just there.
• 22:50
  It's all around the island. And having
• 22:54
  the awareness that there are
• 22:56
  all different levels of people in the water
• 22:58
  is probably the most important thing you can tell
• 23:00
  someone who's just starting out.
• 23:01
  The other thing is just don't give up
• 23:03
  and believe that you've got someone that works with you
• 23:05
  who's going to be there, whether you know it or not.
• 23:08
  Because I don't know how many times
• 23:09
  I've gone out going, gee, I wonder if someone's going to be.
• 23:11
  And I get out there and sometimes they're in front of me,
• 23:14
  they're already there, or they're right behind me.
• 23:17
  So the call it, you have to have a conscience.
• 23:19
  You really have to have a conscience.
• 23:21
  And you got to believe that what you're doing is making a difference.
• 23:23
  And it is.
• 23:24
  You see it when they come back and visit you after you rescued
• 23:27
  somebody who wasn't even conscious. Yeah.
• 23:29
  You know, and and they come and they bring I had two Japanese
• 23:32
  girls who used to come back year after year after year.
• 23:34
  The bring me old me again every time they came
• 23:36
  and come and just just thank me and they couldn't thank me enough.
• 23:40
  We are life to you and I said, no, you don't.
• 23:42
  I said, you show your life
• 23:43
  the fact you were fit enough to overcome that physically and you're
• 23:46
  all your boot, you know, in great shape, you know now and you're looking good.
• 23:50
  So yeah.
• 23:52
  So maybe you won't be rescue people from the tower.
• 23:53
  I know you're still going to be heading out to.
• 23:55
  I'll want to be a spark every now and then,
• 23:57
  but what are you going to miss the most about the job?
• 24:00
  Amazing support of the people around you.
• 24:02
  You realize you've got a you have your own little army
• 24:05
  there of people who really want to be doing the right thing.
• 24:08
  And if you need help, they see it.
• 24:09
  And if they need help, you see it.
• 24:11
  The camaraderie of that and the fact that, that everybody,
• 24:17
  everybody thinks the same way, we're not gonna let somebody drown in front of it.
• 24:20
  I mean, if we've got the skills, we're going to use them.
• 24:22
  And and that's one of the things again,
• 24:25
  you might add that to the list of what you would if you want to do this.
• 24:28
  And you're always helping people
• 24:29
  or you really like helping people and you have the skills and apply them
• 24:32
  and you use them for that, I have I definitely had the skill.
• 24:35
  I'm not a big guy, but I actually had a guy in, in, Waikiki
• 24:40
  who is about Iowa farm guy was about 413 pounds,
• 24:46
  and I actually got him up on a rescue board and had some local
• 24:48
  guys who've been working on the beach, wiki Beach Boys,
• 24:51
  and he wouldn't talk to me until they saw me do that rescue, because they didn't
• 24:55
  think I was big enough or strong enough to get the guy on the board, and I.
• 24:58
  One guy considered him as Coco.
• 25:00
  He's passed away since then, but Coco came up to me after not talking to me
• 25:03
  for almost a whole year that I worked on, and he says,
• 25:08
  he says,
• 25:09
  I always wanted if you could pick me up and save me this nice rescue.
• 25:13
  And he turned and walked away.
• 25:15
  So and I
• 25:18
  he that's incredible.
• 25:20
  So yeah, I think,
• 25:22
  you know, if you've got a dream
• 25:26
  that had a dream, it was a great dream and it made it so.
• 25:29
  And, I didn't think I'd ever have it
• 25:31
  fulfilled dream, but I thought I'd give it a try.
• 25:33
  And when this guy comes up to me at the pool Manila and taps into his shoulder
• 25:37
  as I was starting to do a flip tiny cap go up, you flip down
• 25:41
  and start asking me questions about swimming.
• 25:42
  I like, wow, this is interesting.
• 25:44
  And, it's been it's been a great trip, fantastic trip.
• 25:48
  It's going to continue.
• 25:50
  Well, we appreciate that you did fulfill that dream.
• 25:52
  You know, you could have very easily had taken your skills anywhere else.
• 25:55
  But we're very happy that you stayed here.
• 25:58
  I think, too, I, I'm happy that I did, too.
• 26:00
  I think we've been blessed with with the mayors
• 26:03
  and the people that have been running the city
• 26:05
  and facilities to understand that the people love here.
• 26:09
  They love it, they love the record
• 26:10
  read, they love being in the water and everybody's water oriented.
• 26:14
  And, the present mayor now is same thing.
• 26:17
  I mean, he realizes
• 26:18
  the importance of our department and having his own department that we're
• 26:22
  we really we need we need to make some major changes.
• 26:25
  I mean, and he knows what they are,
• 26:27
  and he's aware of what the situation is, and he knows the responsibility.
• 26:31
  And I think he realizes he's got a bunch of Superman and super women on the beach.
• 26:35
  And I'm telling you, you think the men are good.
• 26:37
  The women are even better because they have to try harder and they do.
• 26:40
  And they're they're ultra super women.
• 26:43
  I've never worked with a woman that I wasn't extraordinarily proud
• 26:46
  to be with, and proud to have them working with me.
• 26:49
  So I just work with them.
• 26:52
  We need more women. That's probably the next thing you would say.
• 26:55
  If you're if you're a lady and you got the skills, try you.
• 26:58
  You'll love the job. So
• 27:00
  well.
• 27:00
  Bill, is there anything we missed?
• 27:02
  I don't think so.
• 27:04
  I just want to thank.
• 27:05
  I want to thank the people
• 27:06
  who have made it possible for me, the originally the Parks and Recreation
• 27:10
  Department and now, emergency services and an ocean safety.
• 27:14
  But more importantly, the mentality and the idea that,
• 27:18
  we have to provide the best,
• 27:20
  life saving services for the people who come from all around the world.
• 27:23
  This is a really metropolitan area.
• 27:26
  I mean, internationally, metropolitan area.
• 27:27
  I've met people from every country you can possibly imagine,
• 27:31
  and I've saved a lot of them as well.
• 27:34
  And, they're they're all armies with our professionalism, which we are.
• 27:39
  I've been I've been to beaches all around the world.
• 27:42
  I mean, I've been to beaches where the jet ski operators are trained
• 27:45
  by Terry Hui and Brian Carolina. Okay.
• 27:48
  So I'm not unaware that we've made our mark around the world
• 27:52
  and the use of rescue boards do acronym Oka was the first one to do it.
• 27:55
  I think it was in the early 20s, and I understand that from that day on
• 28:00
  we used the rescue boards, and that was another really momentum.
• 28:04
  Hawaii Y is definitely a leader in this.
• 28:06
  And, I'm I'm tempted.
• 28:09
  My father wrote his thesis on, on, for for his doctorate
• 28:12
  on, having it mandatory to be taught swimming in the schools.
• 28:16
  And they used to have it here in Hawaii
• 28:17
  because I have a nephew that went to school here in Hawaii,
• 28:21
  and I came to visit my sister who was stationed in Schofield Barracks
• 28:25
  and, her, her husband and she had a son.
• 28:28
  And, it's mandatory that at that point it was mandatory.
• 28:32
  You had to learn how to swim.
• 28:33
  And so they spent two years when I think when they got to the intermediate school
• 28:37
  range, they did it.
• 28:38
  And I think it's a great idea reinstall that because we're surrounded by water.
• 28:42
  What are you going to do?
• 28:43
  You're going to see someone somewhere sometime he's in trouble.
• 28:47
  So do you go out and do it? Well, you don't have the skills.
• 28:49
  You should. If you have the skills.
• 28:52
  Yeah, that's about all.
• 28:54
  Well, well, thank you for your time.
• 28:56
  Oh you're welcome, I enjoyed this.
• 28:57
  Thanks for thanks for asking me.
• 28:59
  And I hope that you enjoy retirement.
• 29:01
  Oh I am, and next week we'll be back with Mayor Rick Blangiardi
• 29:04
  right here on the 1 or 2 podcast.
• 29:06
  Mahalo for listening.
• 29:06
  And until next time, Aloha.
• 29:09
  This is a TV spot to see this 1 or 2.
• 29:12
  Ten seven and Aloha for the very first time
• 29:16
  in Roseburg.