In a joyful dedication on May 11, the walkway along Coney Island Creek in Kaiser Park was officially named Gene Ritter Way. The ceremony took place during Estuary Day, the annual event founded in 2015 by Gene as a way to celebrate, protect, and restore the neglected Coney Island Creek estuary. Coney Island native Gene, who passed away in 2018, was a commercial diver, environmentalist, and educator dedicated to teaching youth about local history and marine environments. He was also the diver who discovered and recovered the historic Dreamland Bell, which was displayed at the Coney Island History Project in 2009. You can listen to Gene's oral history, which he recorded in 2016, on the Coney Island History Project's website at:
https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive/gene-ritter
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