As the first captain of the East Hampton Town lifeguards, a position he held for nearly 30 years starting in the 1960s, Robert Fariel saved many lives and raised a generation of lifeguards to come, before handing over the reins to John Ryan Sr.
It wasn’t his only prominent role in the community. The Fariel family owns the Sea Breeze Inn in Amagansett, which they bought from Lena Bennett Ehrhardt Collins in 1958. Mr. Fariel’s home-baked muffins and scones were a staple of the continental breakfast menu there for years, well after its tap room and restaurant closed.
A childhood survivor of polio, an athlete, an Army veteran, and a longtime teacher of earth science at Sewanhaka High School, Mr. Fariel died at home — the inn — on May 10. He was 92. For a man whose nickname was Fireball, “It seems fitting that as he passed into glory the sun itself threw massive fireballs toward Earth, which set off auroras seen as far south as Florida,” said his daughter, Robin Fariel of Amagansett.
Mr. Fariel was born in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Jan. 7, 1932, to Edgar (Duke) Fariel and the former Margaret (Peg) Broome. He and his family first vacationed on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett, at the very inn they would come to own, when he was 6 years old.
Two years later, the Hurricane of 1938 tore up the East Coast and left the dunes below Bluff Road under water. But the Fariels had fallen in love with the hamlet, and they bought a few lots on Beach Lane that were selling cheaply since so much of the duneland had been submerged. There they built a small summer cottage, calling it the Gay Robin.
At the age of 12, Mr. Fariel contracted polio. He survived, but the left side of his throat was permanently paralyzed. According to his daughter, while confined to a hospital bed he would keep his legs moving all the time, knowing that polio had left so many people unable to do so. “In some ways, ‘never stop moving’ would be the theme of Rob’s life,” she said.
In his youth, the future lifeguard played team sports including hockey and football, and went on to SUNY Cortland, where he played football and soccer. It was at the university in the early 1950s that he met a “petite, blue-eyed blonde” named Janet Nelson. After graduation, they were married and moved to Fort Bliss, Tex., where Mr. Fariel was stationed in the Army for three years.
They welcomed their first child, Gregory, in Texas, then moved back to Long Island, settling in Freeport. While teaching at Sewanhaka, Mr. Fariel coached track and football. Once asked if he ever coached anyone famous, he mentioned a football player named Vinny Testaverde, who attended Sewanhaka and went on to play 21 seasons of professional ball in the N.F.L. “But he never offered that bit of trivia unprompted,” his daughter said.
In 1958, the Fariel family learned the Sea Breeze Inn was for sale. Duke and Peg “threw caution to the wind, sold their little cottage on Beach Road, bought the Sea Breeze from Lena Collins,” and began the hard work of running an inn.
Back then, and until the mid-70s, the inn had a bar and restaurant, famous for its shore dinner and “finger-lickin’ chicken.” It was a favorite spot for, politicians, fire department members, and many other locals. The entire Fariel family pitched in.
In the 1960s, Mr. Fariel began working summers here, in between school years at Sewanhaka. “To satisfy his love of the ocean, he became a lifeguard during the day and then waited tables in the Sea Breeze Inn dining room at night,” Robin Fariel recalled. “Occasionally, if the waves were breaking up, he’d even find time to grab a longboard and go surfing.”
As a lifeguard, serving along young men like Bobby Peters and Charlie Marder, he kept watch over the beach at the end of his street, famously called Asparagus Beach.
“Fireball was really great at bringing sensibility to the lifeguard scene, because he was there for generations of lifeguards,” Mr. Marder said. “He would show you how to identify potential drowning victims as they walked from the parking lot to the beach. He could give you the sense of who to keep an eye on before they even got to the beach, he’d been doing it so long and was so good at it. Whatever generation he worked with, he could relate to everybody.”
“A nice guy, and well respected,” Mr. Marder added. “He really ran the beach in a nice way. He even invented a game called Can Toss, where you’d fill soda cans with sand and pitch them into garbage barrels on the beach.”
In the ‘70s, Mr. Fariel received commendations for his work as a lifeguard from former Town Supervisor Judith Hope and Councilman Samuel G. Lester.
John Ryan Sr. eventually took over overseeing the town guards. “He was the man . . . a very positive force,” Mr. Ryan said. “He set a fine standard for being a lifeguard, and set the tone. The town lifeguards are a proud organization, and we are proud of what we do, and he started it.”
During the winters, Mr. Fariel took fishing and golf trips with the New York Athletic Club; in particular his best friend, John Bartley of Collingdale, Pa. He volunteered for research projects in far-flung locations as well, helping to count birds in the Chinese countryside and protecting marsupials in Australia, where he also held an angler’s fishing record.
Mr. Fariel’s wife died in 2006. Afterward, he became close friends with Audrey Stonemetz, who survives. They enjoyed taking trips together, and she would help entertain guests at cocktail hour on the front porch of the Sea Breeze Inn with delicious hors d’oeuvres.
Also at the inn, Mr. Fariel hired Josephine Villa Albarracin and Carmen Alvaracin Villa, who would ultimately become his goddaughters. They survive as well.
His sons, Gregory and Scott, died before him.
In 2018, Mr. Fariel had a mild stroke, but made a nearly complete recovery. He kept moving, doing light yard work around the inn, as his daughter kept the business going. Earlier this year, he had a fall that landed him in a rehabilitation center and weakened his throat muscles even more.
A small memorial service will be held in the fall, Robin Fariel said, “to consign his ashes to the ocean along with those of his sons.” Memorial donations have been suggested to Doctors Without Borders.
