Dick and Pat Stryker

Still Celebrating

They’re still celebrating and they’re still in love but the family got together last month to celebrate the 70^th wedding anniversary of Dick and Pat Stryker, the former Atlantic Highlands Mayor and retired pharmacist and his quiet, soft-spoken wife who hailed from Keansburg and won the heart of the Atlantic Highlands native.

Central Railroad of New Jersey

And for them, the Central Railroad of New Jersey holds some pretty special significance.

That’s how they met. It was on the train commuting to New York  while Dick was heading to St. John’s University School of Pharmacy and Pat was heading to her position as a secretary in a physician’s office in New York. Dick boarded the train in Atlantic Highlands, and Pat minutes later from her hometown of Keansburg.

At first, the couple just smiled at each other; a short time later, it was a smile followed by a couple of hellos. Then it was a formal date or two before it got down to serious courting for a year and a half.

The couple married on Thanksgiving Day, which was Nov. 27 in 1952.

Dick earned his degree, the couple were married at St. Ann’s Church, Pat’s parish in Keansburg, they honeymooned in Washington DC and settled in Atlantic Highlands with Dick working in an East Keansburg pharmacy.

By September 1953, with the United States involved in Korea, Dick enlisted in the Army and was in training in Virginia which he where he was stationed when their first daughter was born. The family moved to St. Louis to be close to Dick during his tour there and that’s where their first son was born.

A second daughter was born in 1956 and their youngest son, Richard, was born in 1965.

Bayshore Pharmacy

The young father purchased the Modern Pharmacy in Keansburg in 1957 and three years later, another pharmacy in Sea Bright.  It was in 1964 when Dick and his brother-in-law Joe McDonald opened Bayshore Pharmacy when the new Foodtown Shopping Mall was built and opened on Route 36 at First Avenue.

Throughout the decades, the couple participated in numerous activities and organizations within the borough, Dick becoming involved in politics and serving on numerous committees and commissions before being elected Mayor a position he held for seven years.

After retirement, the Stryker’s began retirement in Ocean Pines, Maryland, where she stayed several years, , enjoying the ocean, boating and travel as well as golf and  other activities.

But the call to home was too strong and the Stryker’s moved back here 12 years ago.

Anniversary

Both now 91 years old now, the Strikers celebrated the anniversary with daughters Kathy and her husband Mark, Sue and Terry, and sons and their spouses Jim and MaryAnn and Rich and Jill, together with grandchildren Mellissa and Eric, Jesse, Ryan and Lauren, Nick and Jessica, Gerald, Elizabeth, Christopher, BillyJoe and Jordan, Jack, Ethan, Grace, Ryley, Teague, Kolby, Gracie Kate, Mac, Adley and Baby Fletcher.   The celebration and visitation lasted for days.

As Christmas approaches, Pat is continuing to progress wonderfully from a fracture that was the result of a fall outside the couple’s apartment at 10 Ocean, and Dick can still be heard at Council meetings questioning activities and giving guidance on how things were done in an earlier era on the borough council.