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Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue captain Jeremy Owens directs a team on its next task during the grueling Lifeguard Challenge in May 2012.
and dedication to public safety and education, and founded Evolution
Mixed Martial Arts, where he trained UFC fighter Derek Brunson.
He also was a stuntman who Proffitt says was offered roles that could
have made him hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Jeremy chose to use
his brain and brawn for the real deal rather than the screen, unless the
acting didn’t interfere with his work schedule.
Not that he had a schedule he followed. With hot coffee and extra
cream in hand, Proffitt remembers many shift changes in the F-250 Super
Duty rescue truck trying to get Jeremy to go home and rest. But a true
superhero doesn’t operate by a time clock.
Looking back, we imagine what life would look like without 5,000 of us
here. That’s how many lives Jeremy or someone he trained saved over the
17 years he served.
“If Wrightsville Beach was a skyline of people, everybody would be
single-family homes and then Jeremy would be the Empire State Building,”
Baker says.
Jeremy Owens was determined to save lives from an early age.
WBM FILE PHOTO
COURTESY DEBBIE OWENS
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM