In 1969, James V. Fitzgerald and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors officially designated Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, and that same year Bob Breen was hired as its first ranger. Within a year, more than 800 incidents of people illegally removing intertidal organisms for food, aquarium specimens, or souvenirs were reported, including one person who collected 42 ochre sea stars to hang in his house, and a 1969 log book entry recorded that a group of 7th grade biology students numbering 275 left the place buried in litter. Breen concluded that education was the key to effective stewardship, kept meticulous handwritten logs of organisms taken by species and year, taught neighbors, instructors, and local children about the reef, explored beneath the Pacific to learn subtidal geology and offshore species, and studied every aspect of the reserve's natural resources. In 1973, he launched a pioneering public education program to help preserve and protect the reserve for future generations by forming the seashore docents, and he trained volunteer naturalists and taught every session from the first class in the early 1970's until his retirement from County Parks in 2004. In 1987, under his guidance, the Friends group began a successful junior naturalist summer program, later sponsored studies on visitor impact on intertidal habitat and a marine science scholarship in his name, and now takes more than 5,000 school children on tours each year. Although he had encyclopedic knowledge of California coast biology, Breen believed he lacked the academic credentials to play a credible role in implementing the Marine Life Protection Act, so in 2007, at age 67, he earned a master's degree in marine biology. He then drove hundreds of miles to attend meetings, review research papers, work with stakeholders, and educate lawmakers and the public about the benefits of Marine Protected Areas. On May 1, 2010, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve became part of the larger Montara State Marine Reserve, and Breen's decades of service left a lasting legacy in its volunteers and in stewardship of the California coast.