Cool Old Dude

A reality that I have had to come to terms with in my 37 years working on the Pier is that our time is limited, particularly our time with teachers and mentors. I just lost a very significant one of those.

Correction: The Pier just lost a very significant one.

The Pier 360 Beach Festival is coming up on the last weekend of June. While the event continues to grow in popularity and significance, and it is my favorite of all the free events that we produce here at the Pier, there will be a void. A key member will be absent.

Harold Dunnigan entered my life just after I wrote the first edition of the Pier’s official history book in 2009. He needed a place to store a Pete Peterson-crafted lifeguard dory that he restored and I helped to secure a storage space on the Pier for it. At the time, from my perspective, Harold was just one of those “cool old dudes” that shared great stories about the Pier’s past. And I loved him for that. Oh, but he proved to be so much more…

In June 2010 we held our first-ever Santa Monica Pier Paddleboard Race & Ocean Festival – a mouthful of an event title which we eventually shortened to the Pier 360 Beach Festival. It was a modest inaugural year, just a few hours for a few short races on a June Gloom morning. Harold was there, though, because he knew that we were onto something special even before anyone else did.

And what did Harold know?

History! He knew that the first use of paddleboards on the mainland United States happened here at the Santa Monica Pier, by the Santa Monica Lifeguards. And he knew that the legendary lifeguard Pete Peterson was one of the first and most-gifted people to ever handle a paddleboard.

Harold was so inspired by Peterson that he restored that lifeguard dory that we had in storage. And on that June 2010 day that we held our modest first paddleboard race event, he asked that I open the storage space so that “some friends” could view it. No sooner did I open the door to that space than at least 50 people clamored in to view it.

And then it occurred to me (and the rest of the paddleboard race event team): We need to share the Pier’s rich history with a popup museum. And we have done exactly that every year ever since that moment.

Another correction: While he didn’t state it specifically, museum was Harold’s idea.

Harold Dunnigan passed away on April 3rd. He lived a very full and rich life, one that we can all envy. And his impact can be felt wittingly or even unwittingly on the Pier every day. Especially during Pier 360. Rest in peace, dear friend.