Meggan Monday: Ron Reiter’s life on the water

Captain Ron Reiter has been a captain for the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum’s schooners for more than 25 years. The Ohio native learned to sail on Lake Erie when he was about 8 years old — following his older brother.

We spent some time with the 92-year-old aboard the Glen L. Swetman in Biloxi to talk about his life and his time on the water.

By the time I was a teenager, the other boys were peddling papers and bagging groceries and I was working on sailboats, taking care of them.

I gradually worked into it (full-time). I became one of the captains they used quite a bit and I became the No. 1 captain through attrition. The people I came to help are all gone.

I don’t see how anybody can spend much time out in anything nature-wise, and not believe there is a super power out there. Everybody has a different interpretation, I think, of what heaven God and soforth is, but you’ve got to believe in it if you look around.

He came down here and he said, ‘Do you remember me?’ And I said, I remember the face, but don’t ask me for a name. And he says, Well, I was one of your crew members for a number of years. He said, I’m 42 now. But it’s amazing how many times I run into something like that. People come by or a little kid will run up in Walmart and say ‘Hey! Captain Ron!’

At this point, I do feel like I have a few more years. And my feeling is, as long as I’m able, I’m going to keep trying to do it. I’m enjoying it too much to give it up.

Captain Ron and his wife of 70 years live in Gautier —  and he still has his 41-foot sailboat that he and his wife sailed down to the Coast in 1980.