John Rosenblum, Co-Chair
John is Dean Emeritus of the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. John began his academic career at the Harvard Business School and was Dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond after his tenure at the Darden School. He currently serves on the board of directors of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company (GMO). In addition, John is a trustee for a number of nonprofit organizations including Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Inc., American Civil War Center, The Farnsworth Art Museum and Maine Media Workshops. John has an A.B. degree from Brown University, an MBA and a DBA from Harvard University. He lives in Crozet, Virginia with his wife Carolyn. They summer in St. George, Maine.
Tom came East from Los Angeles after high school to graduate from Amherst College in 1961 and Penn Law School in 1966. Not wanting to work for a large firm, he joined Philadelphia’s Drinker Biddle & Reath when the firm had 40 lawyers, practiced corporate and securities law there for over 40 years and retired when the firm had 650 lawyers. He remains Of Counsel to the firm. Tom currently serves on the boards of Vertex, Inc., a software company, and Turner Investments, Inc., an investment advisory firm, and is Chairman of the Easttown Township, PA, Zoning Hearing Board. He is a former trustee of The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, PA. Tom and his wife Sally have two daughters, six grandchildren and “Woodwind,” a well-loved Apprenticeshop Haven 12 ½, a boat they purchased at the same time they acquired a house in Cushing. Tom first encountered The Apprenticeshop many years ago in Bath when his sister-in-law was an apprentice there.
Pat is the Business Manager at Kieve-Wavus, a position he assumed in 2001 after 36 years experience in financial and administrative positions in banking, electric utilities and healthcare industries including 15 years as a vice president of finance and administrative services. Pat is a member of the Board of Trustees of Miles Health Care, now Lincoln Country Healthcare, and has served as Chairman of both the hospital and the holding company. He has also served on the boards of the Kennebec Valley YMCA, the Midcoast United Way, and the Brunswick Area Chamber of Commerce in a variety of leadership positions. Pat holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Colorado and a MBA from the University of Southern Maine. He and his wife Stella live in Bristol, Maine and have 4 children and 5 grandchildren. And, along with his son-in-law, Pat is the proud owner of a Carney 24 completed in 2005.
Tom and his wife Sue are residents of Owls Head, Maine and spend part of the year in Portland, Oregon near their kids and grandkids.
Jeff graduated from Winchester High School in 1969, built many small boats from plans, and spent summers in Friendship, Maine on Muscongus Bay. He worked on the islands as a caretaker and sailed every day. After two years at the University of Maine-Orono he taught sailing in Rowayton, Connecticut, hung around boat yards, and raced on the Long Island circuit. He then went in search of the sun and ended up working at Old Town Canoe. Missing the coast, he went to work for Pierce Marine in Boothbay. Jeff attended numerous schools in the outboard trade and worked for several boat yards before settling here in Thomaston, Maine in 1976 working for Anchorage Marine. After a few years he went into business with a partner, then eventually renamed the business Jeff’s Marine, which he’s owned and operated since 1982. In the midst of all of this, he bought a 1955 Cayman Island wooden ketch in the West Indies and explored the islands for 10 years during the off season. He eventually settled down and now has two children—Kathryn and Gordon. Jeff is presently a member of the Harbor Committee, the Zoning Board, and numerous charitable committees. Frank Blair was born in Baltimore and grew up in Chicago and Maine.
Fred was born and grew up on the northwest coast of France, Fred started sailing at age 10 and has not stopped since. He began professional life as a sailing instructor/coach in Martinique. Then, after receiving his Captain’s license, Fred worked on sailing yachts (up to 147 feet) for 13 years, logging over 150,000 miles of sailing, a great deal of which was off shore racing, often single handed “for the challenge of it.” In the process, he had the opportunity to work with boatyards all over the world (France, South Africa, Uruguay, Tahiti, and USA) and experience different maritime cultures. Fred also met his wife Martha while sailing when she joined the crew as the chef, a profession she is still engaged in today with her private cooking and catering business. Fred and Martha came on shore to Maine in 2001 and now live in Warren along the St. George River where, when not racing his Laser or teaching sailing and volunteering for The Apprenticeshop, Fred is an estate manager/caretaker and very much involved with boats and island properties.
A native of Maine, Alec has spent the past 18 years building wooden boats and working on private yachts throughout the world. He got his start sailing with the schooner Roseway out of Camden harbor to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He’s been sailing ever since, logging over 15,000 offshore miles. In between sailing adventures, Alec found time to attend the Artisan’s College, a derivative of the original Apprenticeshop. After graduating (as one of the last graduates) he went on to work at Rockport Marine for five years before moving on to work with other builders in successful smaller shops. All of that experience culminated in founding Artisan Boatworks LLC in 2002. A state‐of‐the‐art shop was constructed on Main Street in Rockport, and since then the business has grown steadily, building and restoring wooden boats, employing a highly skilled team of full‐time carpenters, finishers, and riggers, and maintaining an ever expanding storage fleet. Alec lives with wife, Erin, and their two children in Rockport.
Neil is a psychologist with over 20 years of experience providing psychological services and organizational leadership to the educational and behavioral health care fields. His expertise lies in the areas of meeting the behavioral health needs of children, youth and families and in providing top level fiscal, program and operational leadership and management to organizations.
Jim developed his love of being on the water while growing up in Dayton, Ohio and sailing with his father on small lakes in the area. After earning a BFA at Ohio Wesleyan University he worked in Manhattan in advertising for a short time, returning to school to earn his MFA at Rutgers University. He and his wife Kathy moved to Thomaston in 1978 where he ran a “handmade, art kite shop” for several years before becoming a founding partner of Horvath & Cuthbertson, a technical illustration firm. In Thomaston Jim and Kathy have raised two daughters. His younger daughter introduced him to The Apprenticeshop when she participated in the International Competition of Seamanship in Denmark and again when she taught for the Community Sailing Program. Jim presently serves as a trustee for Watts Hall, chairs the Thomaston Harbor Committee and is Vice Commodore of the Rockland Yacht Club. He volunteers as a theatrical lighting mentor for Watts Hall productions and rescues stranded marine mammals for Marine Animal Lifeline Rescue in the Midcoast area.
While living in Vermont, Tanya worked with Peter Coburn (The Apprenticeshop’s former Treasurer) on the board of The Revels. A few years after relocating to Maine in 1987, Peter asked Tanya if she would be interested in taking on the books for Lance Lee’s newest venture: the Apprenticeshop of Nobleboro. With some trepidation she took on the task in 1993, a year before the Shop moved to Wharf Street in Rockland. She has continued to offer her accounting knowledge, in one capacity or another, since then. In 1998 she dropped back to doing only the Shop payroll as she had taken on the accounting for an investment management firm & its affiliates in Portland – a job she continues to have. Tanya lives with her husband Judd, 2 dogs, and several chickens in Port Clyde amidst beautiful gardens (one of her passions). She and Judd are the proud parents of 3 beautiful daughters and grandparents to 4 delightful grandchildren. They are fortunate to have all of them living nearby. She also entertains herself by studying classical piano and keeping up with her first language, Russian. Tim started his apprentice program in June, 2011. He moved to Maine from Bakersville, NC after working ten years as a Correctional Officer for the Department of Corrections and serving five years in the US Navy Reserves as a Law Enforcement Officer.
Tim’s mother is a naturally talented artist and both his father and grandfather were carpenters, so he grew up in an environment full of drawing, sculpting, painting, drafting, woodworking and carpentry. Tim says the balance of visual creativity and mechanical skill inherited from his parents has served him well. Before working as a Correctional Officer, Tim worked for many years alongside his father in the construction industry. He is pleased to be returning to his carpentry roots and excited to finally have the opportunity to focus on his life-long interest in boatbuilding. On his first visit to The Apprenticeshop Tim was impressed with the way everyone helped each other and how information was passed on for the good of all. It was that team-based act that sold Tim on our program. The fact that The Apprenticeshop now honors the GI Bill sealed the deal. While Tim is living his dream, his wife, Deborah, is working as an RN at Pen Bay medical center, and son, Austin, is “holding down the fort” in North Carolina. Tim is honored to have been voted class representative by his fellow apprentices and looks forward to the experience of communicating their views and desires.
Dick’s career includes service as a corporate director and audit committee chair in public and private companies, and since the mid-eighties, management of corporate turnarounds and start-ups. His functional responsibilities have included P&L and a variety of operating and financial roles. He has served as a director of Abbott House in New York, a non-profit agency that cares for more than 800 abandoned, abused and neglected children. Recently he has worked with organizations like Sears Business Centers and Wesco Distribution whose survival required shifts in strategic direction within the context of a strongly ingrained culture. Dick has industry experience in distribution, consumer goods, health care, building products, lighting and retail. Earlier in his career he worked with Avon Products and American Can. Dick served as an officer in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was an instructor in the Army’s Engineer Officer Candidate School. Most recently he was President of Princess House, a consumer goods company. A graduate of Syracuse University, Dick earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife Mindy live in Blue Hill where they enjoy sailing in their 28’ Cape Dory.
Kate is an a ward-winning author and editor-in-chief of Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability. She currently serves as professor of environmental writing at Unity College and as scholar-in-residence for the Maine Humanities Council. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kate first learned to sail on the Illinois River, before heading east, where she completed her PhD in English at the University of Delaware. Now a decade-long resident of Maine, Miles has worked on several of the region’s windjammers and other tall ships; she also teaches sailing for the Lincolnville Boat Club and crews on a J24 racing team based in Camden. Her current book project details a nineteenth century barque made legendary as a transporter of refugees during the Irish famine.
Fred is retired and divides his time between Maine (Camden and Cushing) and San Francisco. After graduating from Amherst College and Harvard Business School, he worked on Wall Street as a lending officer at Morgan Guaranty. In the early 1970s, he shifted from banking to the nonprofit sector where he was an administrator or consultant until the early 2000s. He was Vice President of Pomona College in Claremont CA for 15 years. Later, he was a consultant with Cambridge Associates and worked on strategic planning and investment assignments for a range of large educational institutions and foundations. Fred has been a life long sailor, starting in small boats on Cape Cod as a boy. Mid-life, he cruised many summers in Maine on a family boat he kept on Long Island (NY). His two daughters and seven grandchildren are active boaters as well and visit Maine every summer to keep the family tradition alive.
Mary joined The Apprenticeshop’s Board in October 2008. She first came to Maine in May of 1975 to do a 26-day Hurricane Island Outward Bound School course. She has been returning to the coast of Maine ever since. Mary did her postdoctoral training at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, NH. She has been in clinical practice and teaching for 22 years in Chicago. For 12 years she was the team physician for the US Biathlon Team, has served on their Board and on the Medical Committee of the International Biathlon Union. She also served on the Board of Trustees for Hurricane Island Outward Bound School for many years. Mary is married to Bruce Haffner and has two grown sons. She has a home in Hope, ME and a “day job” in Chicago, IL. Major General Douglas O’Dell, USMCR (Ret) was appointed Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding by President George W. Bush on April 18th, 2008. In this role, he also served as a member of the Homeland Security Council. O’Dell retired from the Marine Corps in May, 2007 after more than 39 years of total service.
Rick came to Maine in 2005 after a career in both large corporations and small start up businesses. He was the National Sales Manager for the Berlex Imaging Division of the Schering Corporation before circumnavigating with his wife Julie in 1990-1992. When Rick and Julie returned from their sail around the world, he started a company in New Hampshire assembling computer cables for network installations. Rick is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Augusta Chapter of SCORE and counsels people operating small businesses in the Rockland area. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Woodturning School in Damariscotta and is an adviser to the Board of Marine Systems Center in Thomaston. Rick is a member of the Cushing Harbor Board and the Rockland Yacht Club. Rick and Julie enjoy sailing on the Saga 48, “Altair,” and have sailed together for the last 25 years. Both are active staff members of the Cruising Rally Associations, lecturing at Ocean Sailing Seminars and participating in offshore sailboat rallies to the Caribbean each fall. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Rick received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey and completed MBA course work at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. He is a veteran of the US Air Force. Rick and Julie have one son and two grandsons.
Stacey joins the The Apprenticeshop Board of Directors with over twelve years experience in the marine industry, including employment in management and customer service at Journey’s End Marina in Rockland. Her current employment at the Maine Marine Trade Association as an Education/Industry Liaison involves workforce and training issues for the marine trades in Maine. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Maine Marine Trade Association and has been involved with the Maine Clean Boatyards & Marinas Program. Stacey grew up on a small farm in Vermont and learned to sail on Lake Champlain. She resides in Union, Maine and enjoys camping and sailing with her husband Larry and children, Larz and Petra.
Aaron grew up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Penobscot Bay, Maine. His formal education in literature and journalism include degrees from Trent University in Ontario, and The University of King’s College in Nova Scotia. His practical education was aboard a range of sailboats from the 12′ gunning skiff and 36′ pinky schooner where he learned basic seamanship, to Pride of Baltimore II, American Eagle, Mary Day, and other traditional schooners where he served as mate. He has sailed extensively in New England and Maritime Canada, with passages to Europe and the Caribbean. In addition, he has worked as a professional rigger on a number of replica projects, restorations, and in a brief stint for an opera theater. Since 1998, Aaron has lived in Maine, working as a newspaper and magazine reporter and editor focused on the state’s fishing and boat building industries. He is currently editor of Professional BoatBuilder magazine for WoodenBoat Publications in Brooklin, Maine. He is chairman of the Hancock County Committee of the Maine Community Foundation, a board member for the Maine youth sailing program Windward Passage, and serves as a curriculum adviser to the Landing School in Arundel, Maine. Maria SimpsonMaria, who grew up in Maine and spent her summers sailing in Penobscot Bay, joined the Board of The Apprenticeshop on May 22, 2010. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Maria worked for several years in book publishing before moving back to the U.S. to work on tall ships in the summers and in boatyards in the winters. Her work included taking high school students on a voyage to Hawaii aboard Lynx, traveling the Saint Laurence Seaway into the Great Lakes on Pride of Baltimore II, and working on the re-build of Harvey Gamage at the North End Shipyard. In 2005 Simpson obtained her 100-ton Master’s license and captained Appledore II out of Camden. Simpson began working at Rockport Marine in 2006 as a rigger. Currently the yard manager, her work involves meeting with customers, coordinating projects, marketing the boatyard and managing employees. She is also an avid sailor, cyclist and volunteer teacher at The Community School in Camden, Maine.
Steve ThomasAfter college (BA Philosophy, Evergreen 1974), Steve crewed a racing boat out to Hawaii, delivered the boat back to Seattle, then spent a year in the Med as first mate of a 103’ schooner and other vessels. The following year he took a 43’ sloop from England to San Francisco via the Caribbean, Panama Canal, Galapagos, Marquesas, and Hawaii. After a year of preliminary research, Steve spent two long fieldwork sessions on Satawal Island in the Western Carolines studying traditional star path navigation with Mau Piailug. His book, “The Last Navigator” was published in 1986 and in 1987 and 1988 he returned to Satawal to shoot a documentary by the same title for PBS’s series “Adventure.”
In 1988 and 1989, Steve researched a book “Four Whales for Tigara” in the Alaskan Arctic where his grandfather was a missionary from 1914 to 1926 and where his father was born. Steve spent the next 14 years as host of This Old House on PBS and helped launch This Old House magazine. During these years, Steve received 9 Emmy nominations and one Emmy (1998) for “Outstanding Service Show Host.”
In 2003 Steve moved over to The History Channel to host and produce the series “Save Our History” covering topics vital to American History. In 2007 he joined Discovery to launch the network Planet Green, with “Renovation Nation with Steve Thomas” a series covering green building and renovation all across America.
C.P. Williamson, Jr.Pen has spent a lifetime sailing the Maine coast and beyond, including 27 years with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School where he and The Apprenticeshop Founder Lance Lee taught together for several years. He served as Outward Bound’s chief development officer and held similar posts at Colby College and the Life Flight Foundation.
Pen now serves as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, whose clients have ranged from public broadcasting, schools, theaters, museums, and youth organizations to healthcare organizations, land trusts and libraries. He has been certified by the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1981, and is currently licensed by the State of Maine as a Professional Fundraising Counsel.
Pen is a competitive rower with the Maine Rowing Association and is a skier, skater and hiker. He is a graduate of Colby College and a former Air Force intelligence officer. Pen and his wife, Beverly, live in Warren, have two children (one of whom was an Apprenticeshop Intern), and four grandchildren.
*********************************************** Director(s) Emeritus
Judd is a resident of Port Clyde, where he lives with his wife Tanya. Judd learned to sail at Tabor Academy’s summer program, first as a camper, and later as an instructor. Education, marriage to Tanya, and children followed. He graduated with a BFA from Boston University in 1965, and then he and Tanya spent the following four years in Rome, Italy, where he worked as a sculptor. “We settled on a hilltop farm in Vermont upon our return to the good old USA. There we raised turkeys, chickens, beef cattle, pigs, dogs, cats and children.” They also gradually resumed sailing, and eventually began sailing on the Maine coast. With the kids grown and flown, Judd indulged his interest in history by enrolling in a PHD program at the University of New Hampshire. There he studied and taught colonial history with an emphasis on shipbuilding and navigation. Judd and Tanya discovered Port Clyde while cruising, and, as fortune smiled, moved to Maine in 1987. Judd was gradually seduced by the positive energy of the apprentices and the reality of the community they created, and he became involved.
Woofie first came to Maine in 1947 with her husband Harry, who started the South Freeport Yacht Basin in South Freeport. The business sold and chartered boats as well as offering services for designing and building boats. The Parkers chose to move up the coast once their four children were off on their own. They chose Rockland as it was the first harbor up the coast that didn’t require traveling down a peninsula. Woofie owned and ran Harbor Real Estate in South Freeport for 25 years. Once she retired from the real estate business she had more time to dedicate to other interests. She happened upon two current trustees on the ski slopes and learned about the first strategic planning meeting for the Apprenticeshop Community Sailing Program. Woofie became one of the founding members of the Community Sailing Program, believing strongly about teaching children sailing and seamanship.
Ralph is originally from Winston-Salem, NC, attended NC State College, graduated with a degree in Agriculture, followed this up with a year in Moravian Theological Seminary (Bethlehem PA), and medical school at Bowman Gray School of Medicine (Wake Forest Univ) in Winston-Salem. After graduation, Ralph developed special interest in surgery and trained at Bowman Gray, followed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – in General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, graduating in 1969. Compulsory service in the Army brought him to Washington D.C. for one year, followed by a year in Viet Nam (24th Evac. Hospital). Upon returning home, Ralph and his family moved to Pittsburgh, where he joined the faculty of University of Pittsburgh as a cardiothoracic surgeon. He eventually went on to specialize in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery – retiring in July of 2002. Bob is a resident of Owls Head, Maine where he lives with his wife Susan St. John. Bob’s twenty-six year military career began at West Point and took him around the world with service in Europe, the Middle East and the Orient including combat in Korea and Vietnam. His last 10 years were in Special Forces with a final assignment as Commander of all Special Forces in Vietnam. He holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. Since retiring from the Army, Bob spent twenty years with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, as Instructor, Course Director, Program Director, and Acting President before retiring in 2001. ***********************************************
Founder of the Apprenticeshop in 1972, Lance has spent a large part of his career focused on experiential education. He spent over a decade with Outward Bound as an instructor, consultant and site developer, as well as a couple of years as an instructor on a 1700-ton Norwegian barque. Lance co-founded Atlantic Challenge, the international sea competition in 1984, The Apprenticeshop on the Neva in Russia and Atlantic Challenge Russia, as well as the East River Apprenticeshop. Lance was editor of “The Apprentice,” a maritime folklife journal published by the Apprenticeshop from 1981-1989. Lance also published “Twice Round the Loggerhead” (1999), Monographs, “Norse Boatbuilding in North America” and was co-author of “Barns, Beams and Boats”. He is currently working on a book on the Kurt Hahn legacy. Lance is a resident of Rockland, Maine, living just a few blocks down Main Street from The Apprenticeshop.
|
- Download 2013 Apprenticeshop Catalog.
- Check out the Current Projects happening in the shop.
- See who our current Apprentices are.
- Support the businesses who support the Apprenticeshop on our Sponsors page.
- Signup for an Adult Workshop, Youth Sailing or Adult Sailing program.
- Check out our new Video.
- Attend our Second Thursday Events.
- View our Boats for Sale.





















Steve Thomas
Julian D. Fischer
Ruth W. Parker



