John Bailey Lloyd was an author, librarian, newspaper columnist, speaker, and historian on Long Beach Island at the New Jersey Shore. Frequently referred to as ''Long Beach Island's historian'', although no such official position existed, he was employed as a reference librarian in the Ocean County Library System. But his passion was for local history and, an engaging speaker, he gave weekly talks on shore history at standing-room-only programs in his home town of Beach Haven for two decades.
He wrote a widely-read column and historical features for the island's newspapers, and authored three best-selling books, including: Six Miles At Sea and Two Centuries of History. The books focused on Long Beach Island, but captured much of the history of the entire Shore. He also wrote biographical introductions to other books, including The Tides of Barnegat, by F. Hopkinson Smith, and a short story included in the literary anthology Shore Stories. He provided material and the basis for three historical videos, including programs about the Barnegat Lighthouse and the ''Lost Resort of Sea Haven: Tucker's Island.''
Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1932, he had been on Long Beach Island since he was ten years old — in time to see old landmarks like the Beach Haven boardwalk, the Engleside Hotel and the vast emptiness of the Island as it once was. With time out for service in the Coast Guard, graduate school and some travel, he spent nearly every summer on the Island, and in 1977 his family became permanent residents and moved into their Beach Haven summer home — an 1879 three-story Victorian. He died in 2003 at age 71.
