The Star Talks To: Henry Uihlein Of Uihlein's Marina

Henry Uihlein saw the light last May 16. Until then, he said, he had always been a happy-go-lucky guy, a bachelor slightly in awe of others his own age who seemed to have accepted adulthood without a fight, and not sure he ever would.

But mortality appeared before him that day between Montauk and Block Island - in a small boat tossed violently by immense waves generated by a surprise spring storm.

A Montauk kid whose parents owned a small marina, a veteran boater and fisherman who had spent his life on the water, Mr. Uihlein thought he was going to die. The same storm, he would learn later, drowned a fisherman, Norman Edwards, a few miles to the west.

Part Two

This was the first half of a two-part revelation, he told a recent visitor to his cramped and cluttered office at Uihlein's Marina and Boat Rental. The old pink neon above the door places the white office building, with its blue trim and big orange Gulf sign, in another age.

The second, more profound part came later that evening after Mr. Uihlein was rescued by the Coast Guard. Terry Field called to say she was pregnant and planned to have his baby.

"It hit me like a ton of bricks. It opened my eyes. I knew Norman Edwards had died at the same hour I was out in the storm. If I'd died, I would never have known I was a father, that I had a son," Mr. Uihlein said. The impish enthusiasm faded from his face only momentarily.

The Reason Why

Left out of his account of May 16 was the reason why he had been out on the water in the first place: He had gone to the aid of a friend's daughter and school friends, overdue on a sailboat from Block Island.

Mr. Uihlein, who often helps people on land as well as water, is scheduled to receive the Montauk Chamber of Commerce's "Person of the Year" award tonight at Hewitt's Ruschmeyer's restaurant during a 6 to 10 p.m. dinner.

His father and mother came to Montauk "on an 'Indian' motorcycle, when they were dating in 1925," he related, and later aboard the Long Island Rail Road's Fisherman's Special, which cost $1.50 and delivered anglers to the charter and party boats docked on Fort Pond Bay at the time. They camped at Hither Hills.

Several years after his family's land near Jamaica Bay was condemned to be used for Idlewild (later John F. Kennedy) Airport, his father bought a piece of property down by Montauk Harbor, where he and his friends built a motel. Later, the elder Uihlein purchased a stretch of beach on the harbor for use by the motel's guests.

"My father bought a few skiffs for the motel guests. They were pulled up on the beach. Where the Viking Dock is was a beach, too. There was an island between the Coast Guard station and Tuma's Dock that appeared at low tide. It had clams on it, and we'd swim to it."

Uihlein Sr. had come to Montauk because of fishing. Henry Jr. was the youngest of five children, the only son, and the only sibling to come east with his parents.

"My mother wanted to call it the Flamingo Motel, so it was, and then it was the West Lake Motel, but everyone called it Uihlein's."

Boyhood On The Docks

Charlotte Uihlein still runs the motel. She was born Charlotte Jarmain, the sister of Franklin Jarmain, who owned Montauk's Wave Crest Motel and whose late wife, Lucille, headed the Montauk Chamber of Commerce for years.

Growing up, Henry Jr. spent all his time around the docks. "I was always there," he said. "I fished constantly. How could you not? Mom and I would go on the Viking all the time."

"I remember it like it was yesterday - the excitement of waking up early, having breakfast at the Viking Grill, the wooden Viking boat, Les Behan's Viking Queen, and the Joshua B - it sank off Block Island. The passengers got off."

Fleet Of Skiffs

"Back then, the codfish, all you wanted, were by the bell buoy," he said. Father and son would often fish by that buoy, a few hundred feet outside the Montauk Harbor inlet.

"Mom would go down to the jetties and flick the car lights when dinner was ready. I remember around Thanksgiving it would be snowing. The fishing was excellent. It was great."

Visitors wanted to rent the skiffs, and Mr. Uihlein's father had 24 by the early '60s.

"They'd all be out. The porgy fishing was great. He had mostly black customers. He would open at 3 in the morning. You don't have diehard fishermen like that any more."

Waterskiing

Mr. Uihlein said he'd seen a tremendous change in Montauk sport fishing beginning in the late '70s and early '80s. "People didn't want to fish all day. They wanted to do more things in one day. It was that, and the fishing began to slack off. The half-day trips started."

As a young man in the mid-60s, when Uihlein's began offering fiberglass power boats, waterskiing in Lake Montauk became a passion. After graduating from East Hampton High School in 1969, Mr. Uihlein decided to pursue the sport at the University of Tampa, the only school he could find, he said, that considered it a collegiate sport.

He skied competitively until an injury ended his chances. He earned a bachelor of science degree and went on to earn a master's from New York University in physical education.

Coaching Career

Then he began to teach, a career his parents supported despite the implications for the family business.

"I love my parents for letting me do what I wanted. They never stopped me. People would say [of the marina], 'All this will be yours some day,' and I didn't know what they meant. I was never pressured by my parents even if it meant not carrying on the business. It was okay."

"Now I'm proud of what I'm doing by choice."

Mr. Uihlein wanted to be a coach, and had a brief high school coaching career in Florida that ended with a bout of encephalitis. Later, from 1976 to 1982, he coached basketball, golf, and girl's softball at Shelter Island High School while teaching physical education and health and serving as the school's athletic director.

All His Energies

He loved teaching, he said, but felt torn because the marina had grown so much. By then it had a winter boat-hauling and storage service, using a small railway and an old dump truck with a boom mounted in front.

Henry Uihlein Sr. had died in 1977. "I wasn't here, and it was busy," said his son. "When I left education, I put all my energies into the marina."

Mr. Uihlein's energy is legendary. There is no such thing as a one-on-one conversation at the marina. A rental transaction is interrupted by a lesson in sparkplug replacement, which, in turn, joins an overheard remark about the fluke fishing, which proceeds until the rental client speaks up and the U.P.S. man arrives.

Porgy And Bass

It all gets done, however, with a frenetic humor and sincerity that quells impatience, and, in fact, often entertains.

This has been especially true since the host of LTV's "Lenny DeFina Show" has been working at Uihlein's Marina and Boat Rental. "Lenny's funny," said Mr. Uihlein. "He cares. He ridicules me all the time, and I laugh."

Mr. Uihlein himself claims to have had no theatrical experience other than playing Flute the bellows-mender in a high school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." This might come as a surprise to Montaukers who saw him portray a mermaid in Uihlein's first entry in the Montauk Friends of Erin St. Patrick's Day parade, and later a striped bass in the "Porgy and Bass" float.

Community Service

At tonight's ceremonies, he is being recognized for his service, often far behind the scenes, to the community.

"I coached minor league baseball in Montauk, and I was a deacon of the Montauk Community Church. Reverend Howard Friend, Hank Zebrowski, Dave Webb Sr. - they did so much for the youth. I would give motorcycle rides at the church fairs. I've always been involved. I love to be able to say yes."

In 1987 Mr. Uihlein joined the East Hampton Kiwanis Club at the suggestion of a boyhood friend, James Nicoletti.

"They have no other interest than helping people," he said of the service group.

He put the philosophy into action at the marina in 1992 with a fair and fishing tournament to benefit the families of two young fishermen lost at sea, and raised $15,000. Other benefits have followed.

The family marina is 40 years old this year. Much of the time, said Mr. Uihlein, things have been hard. There has been tragedy - five men drowned from a rented skiff in 1963 - and plenty of dark humor, like the time a family rented a boat and drove it onto the rocks at the Montauk Lighthouse, thinking it was a restaurant.

There have been nail-biting times, too, like when Kathleen Turner and her husband, Jay Weiss, went out on the water to celebrate their anniversary and got lost in the fog.

The Date

The marina that began as a beach with a few rowboats has grown to a full-service establishment that rents large and small fishing boats as well as water skis, kayaks, surfboards, sailboards, and personal watercraft, commonly called Jet Skis.

The phone rang and Mr. Uihlein spoke to a customer about hauling his boat for the winter. Two young friends waited for an audience. Mr. DeFina slid by and told his boss, as he hung up the phone, that he shouldn't hide his bald spot under his hat.

"I believe in family, I guess," Mr. Uihlein told his visitor. "I always have. The baby's due date is Dec. 2."