Sculpture Dedication Will Honor Lifeguard
After six years of fund-raising, an 8-foot-tall bronze statue of a pelican will be dedicated Aug. 30 at the Huntington Beach Lifeguard Headquarters.
The statue, of the endangered California brown pelican, is a memorial to the late Vincent Grigsby Moorhouse, a Huntington Beach lifeguard lieutenant, former Navy underwater demolition team instructor and combat veteran.
Moorhouse, who died in 1992, is famous for developing the military-style Perimeter Defense System of lifeguard towers in the 1950s. Using his Navy training, he decided to station lifeguards on multiple towers with “overlapping lines of vision” to spot trouble and prevent drownings.
This design made Huntington Beach the model for modern beach lifeguard programs around the world, officials said.
Funds for the statue--titled “Endless Flight”--were privately donated. The dedication ceremony begins at 6:30 p.m. Lifeguard Headquarters are at 103 Pacific Coast Highway. Information: (714) 416-2897.
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