Robert “Captain Bob” Bozek stood surrounded by 159 of his paintings — a lifetime of creativity that, for decades, lived quietly alongside a career in newspaper production and a second life of charter boating.
The Oceanside Library honored the 90-year-old Oceanside native on Jan. 7 with an artist’s reception and a presentation in its lower-level gallery, celebrating both Bozek’s work and his artistic journey — one that began in childhood, detoured and has continued in recent years with renewed energy.
“It was my lifelong dream when I was a kid,” Bozek recalled. “I wanted to be an artist.”
Born and raised in Oceanside, he began painting at age 12, under his mother’s guidance. Early encouragement, however, was not universal. A professional instructor advised Robert’s mother to abandon the idea.
“Save your money,” the instructor said. “He’ll never be an artist.”
“So I continued on my own,” Bozek said. “I never stopped painting.”
At Oceanside High School, he wanted to focus on art, but no such program existed. Instead he made his own path, taking every art-related class available — history of art, printing, mechanical drawing and photography — while also designing sets for school theater productions and working on yearbook layouts. His efforts earned him the school’s first-ever arts degree, and his classmates dubbed him “Oceanside’s Rembrandt” in the 1953 yearbook, when he graduated.
That foundation led to a 43-year career at Newsday, where Bozek worked in production and layout before retiring as advertising production manager. Though his professional life was rooted in journalism, he never strayed far from art.
During the 1950s, Bozek and investigative reporter Bob Greene helped found a fundraising gridiron club to establish a football program at St. Anthony’s High School, in South Huntington Bozek designed the team’s logo — a friar atop a galloping racehorse — an image that remains a symbol of the school.
“I think that was maybe my greatest accomplishment,” Bozek said. “To do that and have it last this long — that was something I created that gave a name to their football team.”
Outside the newsroom, Bozek painted in a shared Manhattan studio until a city fire marshal shut the space down in 1961. Soon afterward he moved to Smithtown, where his focus shifted to boating. He earned both his captain’s license and a master’s 100-ton rating, captained a charter boat out of Montauk and eventually became president of the Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association — the origin of his enduring nickname, “Captain Bob.”
For decades, painting took a backseat. That changed in 2017, when his daughter Meghan, acting as his art manager, asked him to create a triptych of a giant tuna for her home. One painting led to another, and soon Bozek was back at the easel every day.
“That started me again,” he recounted. “From 2017 to now, I’ve never stopped painting. I paint every day.”
Among the works now on display at the library is Bozek’s evolving “Wizard of Oz” series, including a mosaic-style interpretation of the Yellow Brick Road. The idea came unexpectedly, while he was staring at a blank canvas.
“I don’t watch TV — I listen to music,” he said. “Elton John was singing ‘[Goodbye] Yellow Brick Road,’ and I thought, I’ll do that.”
Inspired by abstract artist Paul Klee and elements of Piet Mondrian’s Neoplasticism, Bozek constructed a piece using colored rectangles and squares. The series expanded when an art league in Florida, where he spends part of the year, requested green-themed work for an exhibit, promoting Bozek’s depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West. More characters followed, including the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, and more are planned.
“I’m going to do the whole series,” he said. “Maybe about 10 of them. They have to be shown together.”
Bozek, who was a child when “The Wizard of Oz” debuted in 1939, said the film’s shift from black and white to Technicolor left a lasting impression. “We were amazed as kids,” he recalled. “It really stayed with me.”
Now dividing his time between Oceanside and Cape Coral, Fla., Bozek continues to paint daily, often working on multiple canvases at once. His creativity also extends to custom-painted sneakers, known as Captain Bob’s Kickz, with pairs now making their way around the globe.
More than anything, he said, the art has reconnected him with people from his past. Bozek reconnected with old friends who attended the Jan. 7 reception and presentation, some of whom he hadn’t seen in decades.
“It’s brought a lot of us back together again,” he said. “The art community — it’s such a big community. When you think it’s the last time you’ve seen someone, it definitely isn’t.”
As visitors moved through the gallery last, Bozek reflected on the latest unexpected turn in his life’s journey. “It’s been very interesting,” he said, “this little trip that I’m taking late in my life.”
