Dr. Alva B. Burris
physician and pharmacist
Physician and pharmacist of Ocean City, Maryland, elected the first commodore of the Ocean City Yacht Club when it was organised in the summer of 1928. The Milford Chronicle of 20 July 1928 gives his title and his town and nothing else; the surrounding column is too damaged by OCR to recover the club's founding date, its membership or its programme beyond racing. He is the first Ocean City physician the campaign can name for the 1920s.
In the record (1)
1928 · 1928-07-20
The Ocean City Yacht Club is organised in the summer of 1928, with the town's physician-pharmacist Dr. Alva B. Burris as its first commodore.
Milford Chronicle, 20 July 1928: "Dr. Alva B. Burris, physician and pharmacist of Ocean City, Md., has been elected Commodore of the newly-organized Ocean City Yacht Club, the purpose of which is to [promote water] sports at the [resort]… racing this summer…" The surrounding text is badly damaged by OCR and only the officer, the club and its purpose survive intact.
A yacht club is a sentence about a town's ambitions. Ocean City in 1928 has a golf course, tennis courts, bowling alleys, cinemas and now a yacht club — and it still has no pier. The bay side was organising itself while the ocean side argued about who would rebuild.
Source · checked 2026-08-06