Capt. Joe Frohnhoefer, Founder of Sea Tow Services International, Dies at 71

Joseph Frohnhoefer Jr., affectionately known as “Capt. Joe,” died on March 24 at his home in Southold, New York, after a brief battle with cancer. He was 71. His deep love of the water and unwavering good Samaritan spirit guided a lifetime of service to boaters and shaped an industry. “If you asked him what the best moments in his life were, besides getting married and having kids, he’d say it was a day he saved someone’s life,” his son Joseph Frohnhoefer III remembers.

Capt. Joe launched Sea Tow Services International in September 1983 after recognizing a growing need for professional, non-emergency on-water assistance. At the time, policy shifts encouraged the privatization of services previously provided by the Coast Guard, and the volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary was temporarily covering non-emergency calls. Frohnhoefer moved to fill the gap, insisting on high standards and training to ensure safety and reliability in a newly developing sector.

With a $30,000 loan to purchase his first boat, he built Sea Tow into the model for professional marine assistance. The business grew into more than 100 franchises in the United States and abroad, deploying roughly 500 Sea Tow boats and employing thousands of professionals. Known for its distinctive yellow-hulled vessels, Sea Tow earned recognition for rapid growth in the Inc. 5000 list in both 2007 and 2011.

“He was a character, the type of guy who would give the shirt off his back, but he would also let you make your own mistakes so you learn from them,” says his daughter Kristen, who serves as chief administrative officer at Sea Tow. “He didn’t like the words ‘no’ and ‘can’t.’ He’d say, ‘Find a way.’ He encouraged people to think outside the box.”

Family remained central to the company’s culture. Kristen notes that the Southold headquarters feels like an extended family, with more than 60 staff who proudly wear the company’s yellow. Her brother, Joe III, is Sea Tow’s chief operating officer, and Georgia, Capt. Joe’s wife of more than 46 years, served as executive vice president and was fondly called the “mother of all Sea Tows.”

Born in 1943 on Long Island, Frohnhoefer spent summers on the North Fork and developed a lifelong bond with the sea. His entrepreneurial spirit showed early: he started Water Thrills in Southold while still in college, offering waterskiing, parasailing, swimming lessons, and boat rentals. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s he taught industrial arts at the high school level, worked as a part-time boat salesman, served as a bay constable, and volunteered more than 40 years as an EMT with the Southold Fire Department.

In 1981 he took over his parents’ business, Frohnhoefer Electric Co., which he ran with Georgia until selling it in 1988. He also held appointments that influenced industry and safety standards, serving two terms on the U.S. Towing Safety Advisory Committee and co-founding the Conference of Professional Operators for Response Towing (C-PORT) in 1986. He remained on C-PORT’s board until his death, championing professionalism across the marine assistance sector.

Sea Tow captains under Frohnhoefer’s leadership took part in major rescue and recovery efforts. In 1996, Long Island Sea Tow captains assisted in response operations following the crash of TWA Flight 800, working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard. In 2001, Sea Tow crews in the New York metropolitan area supported the emergency response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ferrying first responders and medical personnel to the World Trade Center. Sea Tow teams also contributed to hurricane response efforts, aiding the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and remaining in the field for months following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Some people say he was larger than life, and he was, but he also had very high expectations of everyone here at Sea Tow International,” Kristen says. “At the same time, he found time to sit and chat with his crew. The running joke was that the more he joked with and picked on you, the more he liked you.”

His children say Capt. Joe prepared them for leadership over many years. “We grew up working here. He always taught us to work hard, be honest, fair and ethical in everything you do in life,” Kristen says. “We’re still a family business, but we’re all family here, and everyone feels obligated to carry out his request to keep Sea Tow running, move the company forward and keep his mission alive.”

Joe III began working with his father at age eight and was responding to Sea Tow calls by 12. He recalls his father’s reluctance to bill people in obvious distress. “He was always more concerned with helping people than making money. That’s why he preferred taking care of Sea Tow members so he could say, ‘no charge.’ We used to joke and call him ‘Non-Profit Joe’ because he felt uncomfortable charging someone he had just helped,” Joe III recalls. “I had to remind him that you have to be able to put fuel in the boat so you can keep helping people.”

That humility stayed with him to the end. Last summer, while towing a boater, a customer commented, “I bet the guy who started this is probably out cruising in the Bahamas on a yacht.” Capt. Joe simply smiled and kept working—doing the hands-on rescue work he loved.

Frohnhoefer asked his family for a joyful celebration of life rather than a somber funeral. On March 29, nearly 700 friends, colleagues and family members gathered at the Wharf House at Founder’s Landing—just blocks from Sea Tow headquarters and overlooking Peconic Bay, one of his favorite places. The event reflected his spirit: beer trucks, local catering, music, and stories shared in laughter and remembrance.

In a private ceremony, family and friends will scatter his ashes at sea. “He loved the water and always wanted to make a living working on the water, which he did,” Kristen says. “He came from the water, he loved the water, and that’s where he wants to be.”

June 2015 issue