The last few days for Dr. Jay Martin as executive director of the Maritime Museum have seen few changes at the museum.

“The transition team has all been here since before I came. They are basically the people who did all the hard work to make me look good,” said Martin. “Things are going very smoothly with many of the board members and volunteers stepping up to the plate to help.”

“Don (Lynch) is great. He will have more to do, but will get the same pay—nothing,” said Martin.

Outgoing executive director of the Lake Ponchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, Dr. Jay Martin and interim director Don Lynch. (Staff Photo by Debbie Glover)

Part of the new team is board member and active volunteer for the museum, Don Lynch. The retired legal analyst from Chevron/ Texaco has volunteered his time as executive director until such time as Southeastern Louisiana University as the board can find a new director. “This is definitely a temporary position for me,” he said.

No stranger to the museum, he has taught boat-building classes, helped last year with the Remote Operate Vehicles camp and managed the lighthouse’s archaeological dig last summer. In fact, he has participated in many such digs in Louisiana and Arkansas.

During the lighthouse dig last summer, Lynch said they found prehistoric Indian artifacts, Civil War buttons and several items that reflected life at the lighthouse during the past 150 years. The state archaeologist on the dig, Andrea White, took the mementos back to Baton Rouge, but Lynch said the museum has lending rights to the artifacts.

This summer, Lynch said the museum will once again hold the ROV camps, June 21-25 for students 9-13 years of age and another for 14-17 year olds July 12-16. Both are currently full. He said the camps offer the opportunity for students to explain to their parents, friends and neighbors how the ROV works and they can demonstrate on a much smaller scale how delicate the machinery is.

Also this summer, Lynch said the museum is open to the public for free, thanks to Chevron. He expects things to continue as they have been under Martin’s leadership, with the Wooden Boat Festival being the main fundraiser, scheduled for October 23-24. Also, he expects field trips to continue this fall, when school resumes.

The lighthouse is still not open, although the museum will continue their maintenance work. The focus currently is to build a pier to the lighthouse for access instead of having to go by boat. This is still at least a year in the future, Lynch said.

He said there are no other fundraisers planned, and there is no program planned as of yet for National Lighthouse Day.

Lynch is originally from Mobile and is married to Catherine Lynch, who also volunteers at the museum.

Martin is leaving the position to move back home to Michigan. “Louisiana is different from every other place I’ve lived. This has been a real labor of love; I love lighthouses, and the area has a rich venue of maritime history. It’s been a really cool experience,” he said.

One of the main reasons he’s returning to Michigan is to be closer to his family. As a college student, he worked summers as a deck hand on the “lake boats” of Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes and is the youngest of six. He and his wife decided they wanted their son to grow up near cousins and family. He said, “It will definitely be cooler, but I am not looking forward to shoveling snow.”

He will become head of the museum studies program at Central Michigan University plus will be the director of the university’s museum. He said that one of his first projects in the next five years will be to build a new building for them.

Both men said they anticipate that great relationship between the museum and the community of Madisonville will continue with few changes.

For more information on becoming involved in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum in Madisonville, or for information on any of their classes, call 845-9200.