David Michael Ivins

David Michael Ivins, long time resident of Belmar passed away on October 22, 2022 at the age of 61. Born in Manasquan, he attended Manasquan High School and worked for Manasquan Diecasting for some years. As a child, David was a loving, caring young person with many friends. He loved fishing, crabbing, camping, nature and had a special fondness for reptiles. In his late teens David’s life changed completely when he developed schizophrenia and eventually alcohol problems to cope with his mental illness. He was hospitalized briefly in Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital and later in various facilities and rehab programs, but mental health care being what it was (and is) and mental illness being what is was (and is) he was never able to get, or stick with, the help he needed.

A the end of 2011, David was mentally ill, alcoholic, in and out of jail for years, homeless and disconnected from his family when some local teenagers filmed themselves beating him up in the Belmar woods and posted the video online. This was in the early days of Facebook and David’s story received national attention. Laws were passed to make it a crime to commit and film a crime and post it online. Local people, who knew David from his years of panhandling in Belmar, donated money to help him. David went into a month long rehab in Pennsylvania for his alcoholism, but his mental illness was not addressed. He moved in with his brother and attended daily AA meetings for almost a year (his longest period of sobriety, but with no medication for his mental illness as David refused mental health help) before taking off several times on drinking binges and ending up in hospitals and jail. Many people and organizations tried to help David over the years. We will never know what kind of life David would have had without schizophrenia or if he had received better mental healthcare when he was younger, but we do know he was loved and supported by many people. His family never stopped loving him. Many people in the local community supported him. He gave everyone he met the chance to be a better person by helping him. David always said he felt like he was still 15 years old (around the age he was when his mental problems started) and he lived all his life as a 15 year old boy would live it. Not many people can say that. We pray he is now at peace in the arms of his mother Barbara who loved and worried about him until the day she died.

David was predeceased by his mother Barbara Ivins, of Jamesburg and his father, George H. Ivins of Hawthorne, Florida. He is survived by his brother George Ivins and his wife Shirley, his sister Holly Powell and her husband Michael and his brother Bryan Ivins as well as two nieces, two nephews and one great-niece and great-nephew.

A mass will be held on Monday, November 14, 2022 at 8:30 am at St. Peters Roman Catholic Church in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. David will be buried in St. Anne’s Cemetery in Wall with his mother and grandmother.