I don’t recall actually meeting Bill Verge. It’s more a sense that I’ve simply always known him, at least since 1998, when I arrived in Key West as a rookie reporter.
A year or so later, Verge would be appointed to the Key West Bight board, where he helped manage the city-owned properties around the downtown harbor — and was always the first board member to return a phone call from a reporter and explain any behind-the-scenes machinations that were taking place. The same was true when he was appointed to the Key West Planning Board and worked to balance residents’ quality of life with the island’s need for its tourism economy.
Then, from 2006 to 2010, Verge was elected to be “my city commissioner,” as I lived in the 400 block of Simonton Street and he represented District 1 in Old Town. He was the cool commissioner, the one known to pop into a nightclub called Wax. At one point, there was also a life-sized cutout of him looking out from an upstairs window of city hall.
He was also the commissioner who, with Jack Spottswood and the late Capt. Joe Weatherby, sank the Hoyt S. Vandenberg off Key West as an artificial reef. But then Verge turned his attention to keeping old ships afloat.
The historic 327-foot-long U.S. Coast Guard cutter Ingham, the military’s most decorated ship, has been docked alongside the East Quay Wall at Truman Waterfront since about 2009, offering tours, reunions for former Coast Guard service members, school field trips and sunset happy hours and private events.
The USCGC Ingham Memorial Museum is the only U.S. military ship still afloat that sank a German submarine in World War II. And Verge, who turns 90 next May, knows every inch of it, tailoring his tours for the age of the group. He also still swings down the ship’s metal stairs like a young Coastie preparing for shore leave.
But he mentioned his age last week when the Key West City Commission honored him with a proclamation of Bill Verge Day to pay tribute to his decades of public service, both in the Coast Guard and the city.
“Public service is one of the greatest things you can do,” Verge said at the July 1 commission meeting. “Thank you very much for this honor. These things become important at this stage in my life, as I’ll be turning 90 next year. And I’m very grateful for the years I’ve been allowed to serve the city of Key West.”
Verge has spent the past 15 or so years proudly dedicated to the Ingham.
Verge remains a Coast Guardsman through and through, having served from 1955 to 1978, including a tour in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966. Following his military career, Verge was president and/or CEO of four large corporations involved in the computer, aviation, international security and marine industries throughout the United States and Europe, he said.
He would eventually buy a home on Key West’s Peacon Lane and move to Key West full-time to become “my commissioner,” well, among other things, apparently.
Verge remains a tack-sharp repository of history, information and unfiltered opinions, peppered with pride, patriotism and a continuing commitment to public service — with a hefty dose of biting sarcasm thrown in to make him more human than historical.
Congratulations on Bill Verge Day. I know I’ll celebrate every July 1.
