By Mary Walton and Charles Layton
Neptune Township’s deputy police chief, William H. Bailey, will be the Camp Meeting Association’s new director of operations — one of two top administrators to replace the departing Scott and Nancy Hoffman.
The Camp Meeting has confirmed Bailey’s appointment in a letter to tenters, and memos went out on Friday advising Neptune’s police department and township officials of his new job.
Bailey and Camp Meeting administrator Nancy Hoffman at a Haitian relief service in 2010. Asbury Park Press photo
Although he now lives in Shark River Hills, Bailey is a former resident of Ocean Grove and has been active in religious activities here. He has accompanied Scott Hoffman and Dr. Dale Whilden on mission trips to Haiti. His daughter, Rebekah Bumbernick, works as a bookkeeping clerk for the Camp Meeting.
Bailey joined the Neptune PD in 1981, was promoted to captain in 2003 and was named deputy chief of police in January of last year. He will take up his new duties at the Camp Meeting on March 1, working side by side with Nancy Hoffman until her departure, which is scheduled for the end of April. Her husband, Scott, departed the first of the year to work for the Billy Graham organization in North Carolina.
“We are excited that Bill Bailey has been hired as the new Director of Operations,” Nancy Hoffman said in a December 27 letter to Ocean Grove tenters, “and as such he will be responsible for the beach, maintenance, facilities including the Auditorium Square properties, and Grove Hall as well as tents and cottages.”
Deputy Police Chief William Bailey
The letter said the Camp Meeting’s executive committee “continues to search for the leader God is calling to serve as our senior staff officer; we will let you know when that position is filled.”
Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn, who was Neptune’s police commissioner last year, described Bailey as “a good police administrator, but he also has that spiritual side to him… This is a perfect fit for him.” She said working for the Camp Meeting “has been one of his longtime dreams… This is something he really felt called to do.”
Efforts to reach Bailey for comment on Saturday night were unsuccessful.
Needless to say Anonymous, you have hit the nail on the head.
The challenge for the Camp Meeting Association is to develop meaningful strategies and outreaches to “most of those people” both secular and religious.
I must say that most of the people buying, visiting, and living in the Grove have no connection to the Camp Meeting anymore. They no longer have much to say about who and how you can live here anymore.
The Camp Meeting’s executive committee “continues to search for the leader God is calling to serve as our senior staff officer”…
I hope that the CMA will consider candidates from the Progressive branch of Protestant theology, those that believe the God’s will is seen in human progress. Let’s give the fundamentalism a break for this term. Scripture has not been the sole and exclusive source of truth for about 400 years, and why would anyone want to go back there?
Anonymous
How wonderful for Ocean Grove! We have known him since he was a little boy; and we know what a caring, capable person he is, and how much he has done, since he has been a member of the Neptune police department, to improve the safety, not only for Ocean Grove, but for the entire Township of Neptune. God bless him!
Bill Bailey is a wonderful asset to our community and a compassionate and caring leader. While I will miss him as part of our Neptune Township Municipal family, I applaud the Camp Meeting on their selection and am pleased that he will remain an active, vital member of the community.
Bill Bailey will be a great asset.
Congrats to Bill. Bill and I grew up together here in OG and also attended college (West Virginia Wesleyan College) together along with his lovely wife Barbara. He’s a great guy and his love of Ocean Grove runs deep. He will truly be an asset to the Association.
I will be traveling with him and others to Haiti in February 2012 and look forward to the Mission trip and sharing the experience.
Again, many congratulations to Bill AND the Association for this appointment !!!
Godspeed.