Headed by former Port of Oakland Public Relations Executive Bob Middleton
Published: May, 2003
Clergy who serve seafarers on ships docked in San Francisco Bay recently celebrated a major expansion to their office and hospitality center, which is located adjacent to the Seventh Street Marine Terminal in the heart of the Port of Oakland.
Known as the Seafarers Club, the facility is operated by the Episcopal Church in partnership with Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Presbyterians. Port chaplains meet daily at the facility to plan visits to ships berthed at Bay Area ports, while seafarers on shore leave use the facility for recreation, phone calls, e-mails, and a wide range of other services.
The Seafarers Club is an outgrowth of the Sailor’s Institute, which was originally located on Steuart Street near the San Francisco Ferry Building. Burned out in the 1906 Earthquake, the organization occupied various locations on the San Francisco waterfront before moving to the Port of Oakland in 1971 when the name was changed to the Bay Area Seafarers Service.
Today, the coordinating chaplain for the organization is Bob Middleton, a 20-year veteran of community and media relations and former Communications Director of the Port of Oakland. I have known Bob for some time, and he was, in my estimation, a really first-rate public relations person who was completely dedicated to the Port of Oakland. So, how did he end up a chaplain? It’s a long story.
Bob was a key member of the Port of Oakland’s staff at a time when containerization was in its infancy, and Oakland was the first and the largest container port in the world. Said Bob, "I really earned my paycheck by explaining the new container hardware to visitors." Later, Bob found himself in the middle of the very nasty Bay Area dredging battles that pitted the Port against fishermen, farmers, and the entire environmental community.
Finally, after 20 years of defending the Port, he obviously had enough, and left in 1997. He started attending divinity school part-time and tried the public relations consulting field, but he found that "his heart wasn’t really in the business." So when the position of Episcopal Chaplain opened up at the Seafarers Club, he decided to try it, while at the same time studying part-time to be an Episcopal deacon. That was in 1999, and he has been there ever since. Here "people really appreciate what you do for them," and that apparently makes a big difference to Bob! People have obviously become more important to Bob than the movement of containerized cargo. We wish him well in his people-serving profession. People are pretty important, after all!
