Former Vice President Joe Biden had a public swimming in Wilmington, Del. named after him on June 26. Biden was the only white lifeguard who worked at the pool in 1962. He said, “I owe this neighborhood. I learned so, so much.” (WDEL)
By Travis M. Andrews – The Washington Post
The summer of 1962 stretched out with possibility before 19-year-old Joe Biden, who was home from college in Wilmington, Del. Though it was the last of his teen years, he didn’t spend it carousing at the local bars, wandering the sands of Rehoboth Beach or driving to Atlantic City.
Instead, he took a job as a lifeguard at a city pool in hopes of learning more about the black community.
His plan was successful. Not only was he the only white lifeguard at the Prices Run swimming pool in Brown-Burton Winchester Park, but he was one of the only white people there at all, as he wrote in his autobiography “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”
Now, 55 years later, the community has named the center housing the pool after the former vice president. The new sign on the side of the building reading the “Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center” was unveiled Monday.