Dan Dorn looks at the mural on West Street based on a photo he believes his father took of the old Red Bank Airport. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
For the crowd huddled under tents and umbrellas in the pouring rain Wednesday, the unveiling of artist Michael White‘s mural of the old Red Bank Airport was a chance to celebrate the town’s rich history and long-thriving arts scene.
But from the twinkle in his 86-year-old eyes that shone through the gloom, you could see it was something far deeper and personal for Dan Dorn Jr.
“I look at this and I just — I just can’t,” he said, struggling for words as he gazed up at the mural stretching the length of a parking lot on West Street, just south of Wall Street.
The rainy unveiling of Michael Whites Red Bank Airport mural, which was funded in part through a program of the nonprofit business promotion agencey Red Bank RiverCenter. (photo by Brian Donohue)
The mural is based on a photo he believes his father, Dan Dorn Sr., took in the late 1950’s, of four uniformed pilots standing near their planes in front of the hangar of the airport that sat just across the border in Tinton Falls until 1971.
For Dorn, seeing the mural sparked memories of growing up in a family where aviation and photography ran in the blood – of childhood days spent peering through a specially cut camera hole in the bottom of an airplane as it soared over the farms and towns of Monmouth County.
And of a three-generation photography business whose legacy lives on in images still hanging in thousands of homes and offices across the region.
Those pilots staring out from the mural? He knows them by name.
“That fellow on the end gave me my flying lessons,” he said, pointing to one of the uniformed pilots in the mural. “The one on this end gave me my flying certificate.”
Many were taken by Dan Dorn Sr. and his team of photographers for Dorn’s Photography, the business he started on Wallace Street in 1937. In the 1940s, Dorn also purchased the antique glass plates of two esteemed local photographers, Andrew Coleman and Charles Foxwell.
Dorn Jr. ran the Dorn’s Photography business until 2004. The photo collection was donated by the family to Monmouth University in 2019. 
Artist Michael White poses for a photo in front his his mural on White Street. (photo by Brian Donohue)
In his remarks at the unveiling, White cited the collection as a “true treasure.”
“It is astonishing that we have it,” he said.
While few towns of Red Bank’s size are lucky enough to have such a documentation of its history, Red Bank also stands out as place where a piece of that body of work could then be translated into something larger and more public.
“This,” he said pointing to the mural, “would not happen in just any town.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
