Clinton Sewall Bassett (1896-1991) managed the swimming pool at Cliffwood Beach for several summers starting in 1929 or 1930. He served as both head of the lifeguard team and swimming instructor. He also had one leg.
Bassett lost his left leg at the Argonne while serving in France with the US Army’s 3rd Cavalry in the First World War. But he went on to achieve amazing things in education and physical fitness. And his career thrived despite his war injury.
Bassett earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1924 and a Master of Science degree from Rutgers University in 1929. In the late 1930s he was studying in a law school in Newark. He became a teacher, working first in Oxford, New Jersey, then at the high school in North Plainfield, and after a few years as principal at New Market schools in Piscataway.
Bassett’s doctor recommended that he use exercise to improve his muscle tone, so he joined the gymnastics team at Berkeley and worked out at the Rutgers swimming facilities in New Brunswick. He taught swimmers during the summer at Cliffwood Beach, took Red Cross lifeguard training, and even participated in a diving competition in North Bergen.
Ultimately, an automobile accident forced him to slow down, and Bassett eventually had to apply for early retirement based on disability. He moved to California, where he lived until his death in 1991.
Clinton Bassett touched our lives only briefly here in the Township, yet his example is well worth our admiration.
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SOURCES AND NOTES
Clinton S Bassett was on the debate team at Flemington High School. (Bernardsville News, 30 Mar 1916)
Bassett enlisted in the US Army on 10 April 1917 and was discharged on 13 December 1918.
Bassett was Private 2nd Class, Troop E, 3rd Cavalry, US Army, when he departed Philadelphia, PA for Europe on 16 Oct 1917. He was Private, Troop E, 3rd Cavalry when he departed Brest, France on 16 July 1918 for home aboard the SS Leviathan.
Bassett lost his left leg while serving in the Argonne, France with the US Army in World War I. Not only did he receive gunshot wounds, but he developed tuberculosis in both lungs and his spine. (Fresno Morning Republican, 29 Jul 1923, Morning Call, 11 Nov 1918; Matawan Journal, 29 May 1931)
Bassett wrote a letter to the editor of the Morning Call in Paterson, New Jersey encouraging employers to find jobs for veterans of the war. (The Paterson Morning Call, 11 Feb 1919)
The federal government offered vocational training to sixteen soldiers from Paterson who were disabled in the war, including Clinton S Bassett. He would train at Flemington High School (The Paterson Evening News, 15 Nov 1919)
Despite the loss of a leg, Basset developed his skills in gymnastics, swimming and diving, becoming a national competitor in watersports and a Red Cross lifeguard. (Matawan Journal, 29 May 1931)
Bassett received a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture, University of California at Berkeley. (San Francisco Bulletin, 14 May 1924)
Basset worked as a teacher in Oxford, New Jersey before taking a teaching job at North Plainfield. (Plainfield Courier News, 28 Jun 1928)
The North Plainfield Board of Education hired Bassett to teach civics at the North Plainfield High School. (Plainfield Courier News, 20 Apr 1926)
Bassett resigned his position at North Plainfield High School, where he had been instructor of civics and general science and faculty advisor of sports for two years, to take the job of Principal of the New Market public schools. He was studying for his master’s degree at Rutgers College, which he hoped to get soon. (Plainfield Courier News, 28 Jun 1928)
Bassett was Principal of the New Market School. (Plainfield Courier News, 9 Nov 1928)
Bassett graduated University of California in 1924, where he was on the gymnastics team. He earned his Master of Science degree from Rutgers University in 1929. He was working as an elementary school principal in 1931. (Central New Jersey Home News, 31 Jul 1929, Matawan Journal, 29 May 1931)
Clinton S Bassett competed in the Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) high dive championships at Columbia Amusement Park in North Bergen, NJ in August 1929. His remarkable performance was probably the first by a one-legged contestant in an AAU aquatic event. (Courier News, 5 Aug 1929, Bayonne Evening News, 6 Aug 1929)
Clinton S Bassett was a lifeguard at the New Brunswick swimming pool and fistic arena. (Courier News, 17 Aug 1929)
The first advertisements for Sportland appeared in local newspapers in June 1928. The offerings were beach related. A swimming pool would be added in the summer of 1929.
Sources: Matawan Journal, 15 June 1928, 14 Jun 1929
Clinton S Bassett was manager of both Sportland and the swimming pool in the 1930 and 1931 summer seasons. (Matawan Journal, 11 Jul 1930, 29 May 1931)
John J Dane, of the Keyport First Aid Squad, provided American Red Cross lifeguard training to the Cliffwood Beach Lifeguard Corps. Passing the course were: C S Bassett, Gene Troyes, Lester Priess, and Willard Comer. (Matawan Journal, 9 Oct 1931)
Bassett was on duty when Walter Wasky, a nineteen-year-old from Elizabeth, was struck by lightning while canoeing about fifty feet off the Cliffwood Beach shoreline. Members of the Keyport First Aid Squad, working as lifeguards at Cliffwood Beach on Sundays, retrieved the victim from the water. Attempts were made for hours to revive him without success. The body was badly burned about the chest, arms and head. (Matawan Journal, 11 Jul 1930)
Bassett and Charles A Kosmutsa, Jr, of the Cliffwood Beach Pool passed the American Red Cross Senior Lifesaving Test in July 1930 (Matawan Journal, 8 Aug 1930)
Bassett returned to school to study the law in Newark. (Central New Jersey Home News, 15 Mar 1936)
Bassett was injured in an automobile accident, which prompted him to seek disability retirement from his school job. “For several summers he served as swimming instructor and lifesaver in the Cliffwood Beach swimming pool. An automobile accident some time ago caused Mr Bassett more physical trouble and since then he has not been able to continue his usual activities.” (Central New Jersey Home News, 5 Jan 1938)
The article (below) called “Know Your Principal,” from the Central Jersey Home News dated 15 March 1936, summarizes Bassett’s career up to that point in time.
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