lit a candle 3h agoI only know Galveston from a documentary about the shrimping boats, and there was an old man mending nets who everyone on the dock just called Pops. Didn't even know his real name till this headline. 93 years on that water.
Their story
Jerome "Pops" Kunz was a Galveston shrimp-boat captain whose roughly 83 years on the water made him a fixture of the island's Mosquito Fleet and, late in life, a familiar face to online audiences who followed his outings with his daughter-in-law. He died in Galveston on Monday 13 October 2026…
Jerome "Pops" Kunz was a Galveston shrimp-boat captain whose roughly 83 years on the water made him a fixture of the island's Mosquito Fleet and, late in life, a familiar face to online audiences who followed his outings with his daughter-in-law. He died in Galveston on Monday 13 October 2026 at the age of 93, after tending his garden on the day of a long-standing Monday family dinner.
Born in Galveston in 1933, Kunz began shrimping at about age 10 after his father bought a small fishing boat and converted it for shrimp. At 14 he left school and went to work on the water full time. What started as a family livelihood became a career spanning more than eight decades on Galveston Bay and the Gulf. His boat, the St. Vincent, worked with the Mosquito Fleet around Pier 19. His motto, repeated by family and friends, was simple: If you rest, you rust. Buddy Guindon, a Galveston seafood industry leader who had known him since the 1980s, said Kunz was fortunate to spend his final days doing what he loved rather than confined to a hospital.
Kunz and his wife, Carol, raised ten children in Galveston. In later years he co-starred in videos with daughter-in-law Nikki Johnson, known online as the Texas Shrimp Diva, and drew thousands of followers who treated him as a working-coast folk figure. About five years before his death, Visit Galveston featured him on YouTube telling his life story. State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson (R-Galveston) credited Kunz's and Johnson's public advocacy with helping inspire a Texas bill that bars restaurants from labeling imported shrimp as Gulf-caught, a measure the Legislature passed in autumn 2025.
On the Saturday before he died, Johnson said she had been out on his boat with him and that he seemed hunched and tired, saying he did not think he would go out the next day. On Monday the family planned their seventeenth year of Monday dinner at his home. He was found to have died while tending his garden earlier that day. Johnson wrote that he had two happy places, his garden and his shrimp boat, and thanked followers who had given him purpose. The family said memorial plans would be shared when ready; the St. Vincent was filled with flowers and gifts in remembrance. His relatives believed he may have been among the oldest working shrimpers in the country.
Biography adapted from The Daily News of Galveston (Corey Greineisen, 14 Oct 2026), Click2Houston/KPRC (Christian Terry, 15 Oct 2026), Chron via LMT Online/Yahoo (Chris Gray, 14 Oct 2026).
In their own words
“If you rest, you rust.”
Kunz's motto, cited by family and The Daily News of Galveston, October 2026
“He had two happy places in life: his garden and his shrimp boat. Monday, he passed after tending to his garden, before our long-standing tradition of Monday night family dinner.”
Nikki Johnson (Texas Shrimp Diva), announcing his death, October 2026
“He kept fighting for you. He didn't want to let anyone down, and he worked until his body couldn't any longer.”
Nikki Johnson, October 2026 tribute
Photos
1by People Forever
that's him, that clip is from a few years back, he was still out there most mornings