History’s in His Blood: Meet Ron Kovatis, the New President of the Sea Isle City Historical Society and Museum

Ron Kovatis says this is his favorite spot in the museum, the Family section, where all the histories of the families from Sea Isle are located.

Ron Kovatis might be new to the job as president of the Sea Isle City Historical Society and Museum – now in its 40th year – but he is no stranger to taking note of history all around him. From the time he was a kid, he had an eye for the historical, drawing him in, and sparking a lifelong appreciation for all things old that tell a story. This is his story.

“It’s hard to say when that button really turned on, because I think I’ve always had an interest in history,” Kovatis says. “Growing up in Philadelphia, my folks took me down to Independence Hall when I was young. And when I was at The Prep, I would take the subway down to City Hall with friends, and a bunch of us would go up to the top of William Penn’s hat. We’d run around City Hall and go into City Council meetings, before getting thrown out,” he says about the hijinks of younger days. “Being in a building like that you get the feeling of history, and that it’s important.”

His natural instinct for historic appreciation was also indoctrinated by the Jesuits. Kovatis recalls the first time entering the front door of the building of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. It’s an experience forever etched in his memory bank. “This is a very special place,” he remembers saying to himself.

This historic trolley car is one of Ron Kovatis’s memories of his time working in Dallas.

“First thing you noticed when you walked into the building was a marble staircase,” he says. “It went from the first floor to the second floor in the old building. And it was one of those wide, wide staircases. It was all marble. And then there were frescos on the ceiling in that entryway. Then you walked down the hallway and the ceilings were 20-foot high. In the old building, the ceilings in the classrooms were 10-to-20-feet high. And connected to the old building was the Gesu Church. I think it’s still there. And that was built roughly the same time as the school building. It was a magnificent old church; the inside was spectacular.”

Kovatis had never walked into a building like that before. And it was life-changing.

“It’s hard to describe,” he says. “There’s almost a smell. The history wafted through. At the time you were almost immediately embraced by the Jesuits; and the second thing, you felt embraced by history. There were trophy cases all around the corridor, and year books on display from the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s.”

According to Kovatis, tuition at The Prep in those days was $400. And it was too much of an expense for his parents, Agnes and Theophilus, known as “Ted.”

“Dad was an electrician for the government and on weekends he would do odd jobs, and I would go and help by handing him tools. My mother was a stay-at-home mom,” he says.

His parents met at a USO social function at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. “My dad was a U.S. Marine veteran of World War II and was on the landing party and fought in Guadalcanal,” he adds.

With his parents, Kovatis grew up in Drexel Hill. He attended grade school at St. Bernadette’s, where he played on the football team.

He was good at football. Actually, he was very good. So much so, that an alumni of The Prep scouted him when he was playing for St. Bernadette’s. As Kovatis explains it, The Prep was just getting back into the Catholic League, and it was asking alumni to scout out talent. Kovatis ended up attending the school on partial scholarship and graduated in 1966. His senior year, Ron Kovatis was selected to the All-Catholic League team.

Kovatis, right, was an All-Catholic player for St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia.

He then received a full athletic scholarship to Lehigh University, where he was an English major. “During college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” says Kovatis. “I ended up teaching English at Bishop Neumann in Philadelphia for 6 years, and I was an assistant football coach.”

In the 1970s he earned his master’s degree in secondary school guidance from Villanova University. From there, he left Bishop Neumann to become a guidance counselor at Penncrest High School. “Attendance was going way down, and I ended up getting laid off,” says Kovatis. “So, I went to work for an executive recruiting firm.”

It would turn out to be a fortuitous move. While at the executive search firm, one of their clients was Price Waterhouse. It turned out that PW was looking to hire a college recruiter.

Says Kovatis, “I had experience with both education and recruitment. And I got hired as a college recruiter at PW in Philadelphia.” (It’s now Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP.)

Then after about six years, he was recruited away from PW and went to work for a law firm in Philly. But history would again, pull him back to Price Waterhouse, and this time when he got an opportunity with the firm, it meant a move to Dallas to become director of human resources.

At PW in Dallas, the offices where he worked were in a perfect and prime location, in the arts district, across from the museum. Kovatis found Dallas easy to navigate and he and his wife, Nancy, delved into enjoying all the arts world had to offer. He became a board member of the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas. And that’s when Kovatis met the chairman of the board of McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA), which operates the M-LINE Trolley.

“I think the first time you see one of those antique streetcars actually in operation running down one of the thoroughfares of a glass-towered city, it just captures your attention and takes your breath away,” says Kovatis, who was brought on as executive director of MATA to write the business and strategic plan related to its expansion. MATA was founded in 1983 to return heritage streetcar service to Dallas.

Ron’s father, Ted, was a U.S. Marine who fought in Guadalcanal in World War II.

“One of the transit cars in MATA’s collection is rumored to be the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world. Named Rosie, the trolley was built in the early 20th century by J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia,” he says.

“They have been beautifully restored and maintained. You get on Rosie and you’re back in the early 1900s. They have specialized upholstery, stained glass windows. The operators are all dressed in period costume uniforms. You become a part of the history of that streetcar when you ride it.”

And while Dallas provided a great career and lifestyle for the Kovatis family, and Ron was enjoying the history of the city, there was a pull to return to their East Coast roots. For one, their adult children, Stephen and Jean Marie, resettled in Philadelphia. And so, nine years ago, Ron and Nancy bought a home in Sea Isle, and five years ago they moved back full time. That was when he began volunteering at the museum.

Now, the city of Sea Isle will give Ron a chance to explore not only historical architecture, family ancestries, and maritime history, but what will surely fuel his thirst for celebrating what we all love about living by the sea.

“We were here a few months full time when my wife came in from a walk. ‘I met a nice woman on the beach named Abby Powell,’ she said. ‘She’s involved in beachcombers and the history museum in Sea Isle. And I signed you up for both.’” Says Ron, “And that’s how I got involved with the museum.”