Earl Soles of Cobbs Creek has been named by the Mathews County Board of Supervisors an Honorary Lighthouse Keeper in Mathews, and Aug. 7, National Lighthouse Day, was proclaimed by the board to be Earl Soles Day.

The recognition, signed and presented Tuesday by county board chair Charles Ingram, was made to recognize Soles’s efforts and accomplishments to protect and preserve New Point Comfort Lighthouse.

The lighthouse, commissioned in 1805 but long disused by the U.S. Coast Guard, became the property of Mathews County in 1972. Efforts to stabilize and preserve the structure began in 1976 and the most recent addition of riprap, in a preservation move sparked by Soles, took place in 2012.

The board proclamation said “through Mr. Soles’s leadership and persistence, the New Point Comfort Lighthouse has been protected and preserved and will continue for future generations to be a beacon of strength and security and a focal point for Mathews County.” 

The l...