There was a post on social media recently talking about the fact that if someone from America or Spain or Russia or any other country moves to Japan or to China or to basically any country, that they don’t become a “Japanese” or a “Chinese” or a “Peruvian….” But if people from any other country move to the United States, they almost certainly become an “American.” It led to the train of thought that people moving to Florida become “Floridians,” and frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that. It further led to the train of thought that when people move to the First Coast from other places, they become First Coasters.
When Doug Schultz moved to Florida the term First Coast had not been coined yet so coming from Indianapolis, Indiana with his parents at three months old, he simply became a local! Doug’s father, Bud Schultz, moved the family here and Mr. Schultz opened a service station in South Jacksonville Beach. Doug was twelve years old when his parents bought a home in Atlantic Beach, and his father had by then started Long & Schultz Roofing Company, a local business still growing strong even to this day.
“I remember when I started at Fletcher Junior High,” Doug told First Coast Life, “I started making new friends and the beach was just a couple of blocks up Fifth Street and all of a sudden I was surfing and having so much fun, I couldn’t have dreamed of a better life!” Life was so much simpler back in the 1970’s. It was a time when people rarely locked their doors at night, kids played outside until it got dark, dogs happily roamed the beach and neighbors watched out for each other. “We would surf at the end of Fifth Street or at the Atlantic Beach pier, then go to Mama’s Tacos and eat so much food it was unreal,” he recalled. “Ray Hinson’s mom owned Mama’s Tacos so we had a major in there and Scott Williams family owned Bennett’s Motel so we would surf for hours and then me, Ray and Scott would go eat, then head over to Bennett’s Motel and jump in the pool until the tide changed and go back out surfing!”
At sixteen Doug got his first motorcycle and started racing motocross and surfing got moved to the backseat. North Florida had several motocross tracks, so Doug found himself somewhere every weekend riding his motorcycle. “North Florida raceway was owned by the Rays out in Palm Valley and between that, Callahan and Durham Parker’s Cycleback park on San Pablo Road we raced pretty much every weekend for a few years,” Doug said. But it didn’t just include local tracks, Doug was winning over half his races and that led to bigger events at tracks all over the state. “Yeah, I had a pretty good run there for a while,” he said. “My dad had an RV and we started hitting the road and racing the circuit all over Florida. I definitely had dreams of being a professional motocross racer.”
The 1970s were a crazy time and Doug was growing up in an environment like everywhere else in the country. Marijuana was pretty much everywhere and with places like Jax Liquors selling cups of ice (set ups), mixers and liquor at their drive-up window, all one needed was a fake ID or someone legal in the car and getting an alcohol buzz was easier than anything else. Doug remembered experiencing his share of trouble too. “Well, one night I was driving a little crazy and got pulled over by the Atlantic Beach police and got taken to the station where they called my dad. After that my days of freewheeling anywhere I wanted were put on hold! I actually joined the Neptune Beach Volunteer Fire Department and at that time Larry Dean was a volunteer fireman, before he became a police officer, and it definitely helped turn my life around. Being around people like Larry Dean and Sam Bass and Dodger Harding had a very positive impact on my life”
Doug’s father, Bud Schultz, had sold his service station in 1958 and joined Doug’s uncle to open Long & Schultz Roofing. As he grew up, Doug found himself helping out around the shop quite a bit and without realizing it, was learning the roofing trade. “If we weren’t racing or when I wasn’t at the fire station, I would be hanging around my dad’s shop a lot and helping out with all kinds of stuff,” Doug told us. Then in 1980 Doug’s parents, Bud and Betty took a road trip to North Carolina for a week and when they returned, they were already planning another trip back up to the mountains a few months later. The trips to North Carolina became longer and more frequent and Doug’s role at the family business grew. By 1985, Mr. and Mrs. Schultz had decided they would rather live in the mountains and Bud turned the business over to Doug. Not long after that Doug received his roofing contractor’s license and started paying his dad to buy out the business. There were few reputable roofers in business back then, Terry McCue and just a few other beach locals were in that business so Doug started his own company, simply called Schultz Roofing, and since he had already taken over his dad’s location he continued to operate out of that space.
Doug had met Rick Thomason during his days racing motorcycles and a lifelong friendship had begun. Thomason remembered meeting Doug in the 70s. “We raced against each other at all the tracks. I worked at Westside Kawasaki as a mechanic,” Thomason told First Coast Life, “but I had worked off and on as a teenager for Mr. Schultz before I joined Doug full time at Schultz Roofing. Over the years we raced motorcycles, go karts and even had a fishing team called the Crackin’ Dude!”
Doug married his high school sweetheart, Gayle Merrey, and started their own family. “I met Doug at Fletcher,” Gayle reminisced, “and he was my boyfriend when I was thirteen!” Their kids, Matt and Nicole, grew up in the Jax Beach community, went to Fletcher and Matt followed suit and went to work in the family business. Now Matt runs the Sheet Metal division and has full time responsibilities as his dad is stepping away from it all. “My dad and Rick Thomason instilled in me the commitment to excellence that Schultz Roofing has long been known for,” Matt said. “My grandfather, Bud, was committed to running a reliable, reputable business that the people in this community could trust and nothing has changed. We stand by every job we do and our customers know that.”
Gayle reiterated that sentiment saying, “Oh yes, the one thing Doug took the most pride in was protecting his father’s reputation as a trustworthy, honest businessman. Doug worked long hours and never complained because he always wanted the job done right and done to the complete satisfaction of the customer. And Matt got that same belief from his dad.”
As a local business owner, Doug Schultz has been blessed with continuous work and recalls that even the Jaguars coming to town was beneficial to him and what he does. “When Jacksonville was awarded the NFL franchise we got contracted to put roofs on so many homes that guys like Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith and even Coach Coughlin were moving into. It was definitely a big boost for us, but we also did big jobs like all the buildings owned by the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, Sawgrass, Marsh Landing and more. We never rest on any laurels though, every job, no matter how big or small gets treated the same. And I couldn’t be prouder that my son, Matt will be involved in carrying on the Schultz legacy.”
Doug Schultz certainly doesn’t have any plans to move to another country as he leaves his role at Schultz roofing. He is as American as they come but even more importantly he is a First Coaster. With a house on Lake George, he will certainly do a lot more fishing, but even there he will still be from Atlantic Beach.
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Mike has lived on the First Coast his entire life and was a leading figure in surfing and skateboarding for most of his life. After promoting music for many years on the local music scene, Mike now brings a unique perspective to FirstCoast.Life as a contributing writer.
