Attention All Hands:
My name is Cmdr. Alvan Hirshberg, USNR (ret.). I am the Seamanship instructor at Riviera Beach Maritime Academy (1st year). This term I will be teaching Boating and Yachting as specified curriculum from the US Coast Guard Auxiliary printed manual. Second term will teach and practice NAVIGATION.

I grew up in a small town located in Merrimac River in Massachusetts. This river emptied into the Atlantic at Newburyport, MA and was one of the ports in the Revolutionary War that built and operated Privateers and Man-O-War ships. From this environment my love for the sea became a reality.

Upon completion of my secondary education at Haverhill High, a war-time tour of Active Duty followed immediately with Flight Training/commissioning an Ensign and off to the Pacific Theater, War ended, graduated Tufts University with a B.S. stayed in the active reserve and was assigned to multi-engine aircraft squadrons, married a beautiful nurse, raised two sons and a grandson, all while flying weekends and short tours of duty with the Navy, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of our family International Companies with offices in Andover, Ma., St Louis,Mo., Garden City, Ca., London, Malaysia and Singapore and Hong Kong. We produced Natural Rubber that was primarily used in the shoe industries throughout the world. The plantation was converted to raising Palm Oil when the markets changed.

Along the way I was a Trustee at the Holderness School in Plymouth, NH and a member of the Packard Society at Tufts University. Survived an American Airlines Electra Crash at LaGuardia Airport, saved the lives of Pilots and Crew (4), awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, The Flight Safety Award of Merit, and The Navy awarded a Letter of Commendation from the Admiral of First Naval District.

Retiring to Florida in 1984, did volunteer teaching in the Junior Achievement Program, became the Fingerprint Technician at the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, helped start the Citizens Mobil Patrol and still an active patrolman.

Joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 51 in Riviera Beach, offered my boat and was accepted as an Operational Facility and qualified as a Vessel Examiner. We do safety checks and safety patrols in our sector. I am also Qualified Crew.

My acceptance as an instructor at the Riviera Beach Maritime Academy has allowed me to fulfill a longing desire to teach and be a mentor to young men and women in order for them to learn and experience the same wonderful desires of the sea and gain the knowledge that will assist them throughout their journey of life. Please call me at school so we can meet face-to-face.
STAND AT EASE