James Richard Jarboe Sr. was born in West Virginia in 1906 and his father, James G. Jarboe, was a veteran of the Spanish American War. The Jarboe family moved to Jacksonville sometime before 1910. Before he succeeded Pete Jensen of Pete’s Bar fame as Neptune Beach town marshal in 1936, Jarboe worked for the State Road Department, the forerunner of the Florida Highway Patrol.

Jarboe served as town marshal of Neptune Beach for 38 years. In Jarboe’s day, the town marshal also served as the fire chief, public works director and city manager. Jarboe’s wife, Olive, used to answer the emergency phone when Jim was out on patrol. To summon him back to the station, she would turn on a red light atop city hall. This was back before police cars had radios.

During her husband’s decades-long tenure as town marshal, Olive served on and off as the city clerk of Neptune Beach. The couple had two children, Jim Jr. and Judi. Jim Jarboe Jr. worked briefly as a patrolman for his father after graduating from the University of Ga. Jim Jarboe Jr. went on to work in the administration of two Jacksonville mayors and was city manager of both Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach.

Jarboe lived on a ground floor apartment on First Street or what is now City Hall. A nearby barn housed their cow, a horse Jim rode on the beach and their chickens. During 1940s and ‘50s, Jim and Olive hosted children’s movie night every Friday at City Hall. Admission was free along with popcorn and bottles of Coke. The 16 mm movies were mostly westerns.

When Jarboe saw a photo of Duke Kahanamoku riding waves in Hawaii, he came up with the specs for his own wooden surfboard and had Charlie Creech of Ed Smith Lumber Company build it for him. The 20-foot-long board didn’t have fins so Jim would drag one foot to steer it in the ocean. He also used it as a rescue board on the oceanfront. A photo of Jarboe and Creech standing with the board on the beach was taken in the 1940s and is part of the Beach Museum’s collection.

Jarboe also raced motorcycles at Daytona and wrestled alligators, including one he captured from the pond at what is now Jarboe Park. He and Jack Russell, the police chief of Atlantic Beach from 1931-1961, were great friends. Russell also had a park dedicated in his honor in 1966.

During the Christmas holidays, Jarboe used to hand out oranges to children from his police car. The annual Christmas tradition continues to this day with a Neptune Beach police car pulling a trailer with Santa and Mrs. Claus through the streets of Neptune Beach.

In the early 1960s, Jarboe’s beloved Great Dane, Shadow, was one of the area’s first K-9 patrol officers. Jarboe would unleash the dog at night in the business district. Shadow Lane off Penman Road and Seagate Avenue was named in the dog’s memory because that’s where Shadow used to do his business. 

When Jarboe died of cancer in 1974, he was succeeded by his right-hand deputy Howard Basil, a retired Navy veteran. In 1984, a park across from Beaches Chapel was dedicated in Basil’s honor.

James R. Jarboe Jr.