If you ever take a drive or a walk over to the Wharf in Nahant, there’s a good chance you’ll catch a glimpse of Rob Tibbo, the town’s current chair of the Board of Selectmen. Why’s he there? Because he’s also Nahant’s harbormaster
Tibbo was appointed harbormaster in 2010 and had been an assistant harbormaster since around 1995.
“Bill Waters was harbormaster at the time, and my father, who had been an assistant harbormaster, had passed away. Bill caught me one day and asked if I’d be interested in taking his place. And I was. So, I’ve been here ever since,” Tibbo said.
However, his time on the Wharf goes back farther than that.
Behind Tibbo inside the wharf building sat a photo of two men smoking pipes and playing cribbage. One wore a beret. That man was Tibbo’s grandfather, Clarence Tibbo, who had come from Newfoundland.
“He wasn’t a harbormaster but a wharfinger from probably around 1963 to 1984,” he said. In the photo, the two men sat inside a building that was once in the same location as the one where Tibbo was standing. “The building he’s in was here, but it’s been replaced twice since this picture was taken,” he said.
“He spent all spring and summer combing Tudor Beach where he would pick up driftwood and he’d cut it up and stack it,” he said.
The picture was sitting on a stove, the same stove visible within the photo, and the chopped wood was used to warm the building.
“This stove would keep the building open all winter long because he loved to be around people,” Tibbo said.
Tibbo continued that growing up if he wanted to see his grandfather or his father, he would have to go down to the wharf.
“That’s pretty much the foundation of what got me here. If they wanted to get rid of me, they’d put a pram in the water and tell me to go rowing somewhere,” he joked. “That was a great way to get rid of me.”
Tibbo then explained that he had come in early enough to the positon that he was basically grandfathered in.
“Now, for a harbormaster to really officially take the position, there’s the same level of training as police officers get. I just enjoy taking more of an administrative approach, and if I need somebody with police powers, I just call the police,” he said.
He said that one of his jobs is putting out the buoys to tell swimmers “You’re in here and you’re out there and don’t cross over if you can avoid it,” and that he does his best to keep people safe.
“If there’s a call from someone in trouble with a boat or on the rocks at Forty Steps or something like that, I’m going to be available. I’m going to have that boat ready,” he said.
Tibbo was also on the original rescue team that formed after people had died up at Forty Steps from a storm, and he was also an on-call firefighter.
“Another one of my side jobs. I mean, who gets to drive a firetruck every once in a while?” he joked.
Tibbo noted other things he’s done in the past, like serving on the Board of Assessors, but he made one thing clear: “This is my happy place.”
“I’ve been here since I was able to walk. Like I said earlier, I’d be off in rowboats as soon as they wanted to get rid of me and not too many years after that, I had a little 12-foot skiff and a whole bunch of lobster traps,” he said.
When asked what memories stuck with him, Tibbo admitted it was hard to pick.
“There are several critical events where we either tried to help somebody or unfortunately, had to just recover somebody. Those memories stick out. In an unofficial capacity, they used to have the Nahant Arts Festival down here in the ‘70s… We’d have a band and all the kids, myself included, would sit over in the park and listen to rock music,” he said.
He also mentioned his front row seat every 4th of July, getting to see the show up close.
“Also, times when I had my wife, Meredith, out on the board with me. I put out and take in the swim markers in the early spring and late fall, and it is just a great ride because there’s no one out here. Especially in the spring. There are baby ducks everywhere. It’s a ride that only lasts 45 minutes, but those rides stand out because we get to enjoy nature for a little bit,” Tibbo said.
“Those are just wonderful moments.”
