ECKERD COLLEGE NEWS Waterfront/Search & Rescue Team Leader Ryan Dilkey Honored

In this episode of ECKERD COLLEGE NEWS, learn about Eckerd College's Ryan Dilkey (right in photo), who leads the Waterfront and Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team programs.  A fixture at Eckerd College since the 1990s, Associate Director of the Waterfront Program Ryan Dilkey ’98 has guided decades of students through the Waterfront and the Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team.  His longtime service will be commemorated for future generations of students with the creation of the Ryan Dilkey ’98 Endowment for EC-SAR. Spearheaded by a generous $100,000 gift from Crystal Moser McCormick and Dain McCormick—friends of Dilkey and his wife, Jenn—the endowment will support EC-SAR in its mission of education through service and keeping Tampa Bay boaters safe. The EC-SAR Team was founded in 1971 in an effort to provide safety services for the College’s watersports activities. In 1977, EC-SAR extended its rescue services to the Tampa Bay boating community. EC-SAR received its first test of international proportions when the team was one of the first rescue units to respond to the Skyway Bridge disaster in May of 1980. The program has since grown to become one of the most respected search and rescue organizations on the West Coast of Florida. Dilkey served on the EC-SAR Team as a marine science student and began working as shop supervisor at the Waterfront after his graduation in 1998 but was called up to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard in 2001, post-9/11. He returned in 2006 as EC-SAR coordinator, rising to assistant director and then associate director of the Waterfront Program. Read Hilary Lehman's article here.

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