“At age twelve, I wrote a paper on Pompeii, becoming fascinated with catastrophic archaeology. By age 25, I joined the Texas Historical Commission (1977-85), learned to dive, and participated in surveys off the Texas Coast, including early searches for La Salle’s L’Aimable and La Belle. Meanwhile, I was an MA student at the University of Texas at Austin, with thesis interests in Mexica/Aztec watercraft. I met George Bass on his visit to the THC, after which he facilitated my enrolment in Richard Steffy’s History of Wooden Ships & Ship Reconstruction courses and Edwin Doran’s Eastern Seafaring, to learn about watercraft, tools, and shipbuilding.

In 1980, Roger Smith asked me to join the TAMU/INA Cayman Islands Project, where Donny Hamilton introduced me to his practical conservation teachings. This led to my becoming Donny’s Assistant Archaeologist on the 1982 and 1983 Port Royal Projects. Over the following years, I continued to participate in INA-associated projects: Jamaica (Pedro Banks with Steve Hoyt & Jim Parrent; Jamaican Dugout Canoe with JNHT); Mexico (Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Chinchorro Banks, Campeche with Pilar Luna’s INAH teams); Spain (Bay of Cadiz under Denise Lakey); and Turkey (Uluburun with George Bass and Cemal Pulak) These opportunities set my life’s course, as I discovered a career and found unique friends and colleagues, who are too numerous to name individually. Significantly, I found my mentors among the TAMU/INA faculty and project directors.

When TAMU launched the NAP PhD Program, I enrolled. My dissertation committee, chaired by George Bass in cooperation with Kevin Crisman, focused on an eighteenth-century Cayman shipwreck disaster, ‘The Wreck of the Ten Sail’ – HMS Convert and nine ships and brigs of her 58-ship Europe bound convoy, sailing from Jamaica, and lost during the French Revolutionary Wars. George and Kevin inspired me, while my work became stronger under their direction. Frederick van Doornink and Fred Hocker also taught me about ships.

I participated in the official opening of the Cayman Islands National Museum in 1990, later becoming Museum Director. During the past four decades, I have advocated for the protection and management of UCH in Latin America and the Caribbean, and internationally, often with UNESCO, ICOMOS ICUCH, SHA & ACUA.”