Steamboat 2011 Planning Committee

Chuck Parrish
Committee Chair
Chuck Parrish is a retired historian for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from Louisville, Kentucky.

Captain Alan L. Bates
Captain Bates is a naval architect, author, and columnist for the Waterways Journal.

Rick Bell
Rick Bell is the former Executive Director of the U.S. Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the author of The Great Flood of 1937, a comprehensive study of this event in Louisville.

Jack E. Custer
Jack Custer from Louisville, KY specializes in the history of towboats.

Sandra Miller Custer
Sandra Custer specializes in the history of women on steamboats, and lives in Louisville.

Julie Harris
Julie Harris is the Executive Director of the River Discovery Center in Paducah, Kentucky.

Linda Harris
Linda Harris is the CEO of Waterfront Development Corporations Belle of Louisville, the Oldest Operating Western Style Paddlewheel Steamboat in the World and a National Historic Landmark, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Leland R. Johnson
Dr. Leland Johnson is an authority on the history of rivers and engineering, and has published more than 30 accounts on the subject. Dr. Johnson has degrees from Murray State University, St. Louis University, and Vanderbilt University. He lives in Westmoreland, Tennessee.

Erin Kelley
Erin Kelley is the Public Programs Coordinator at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, Indiana.

M’Lissa Y. Kesterman
M’Lissa Kesterman is Manager of Reference Services for the Cincinnati Historical Society Library at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Rita Kohn
Rita Kohn is a writer and is editor of Full Steam Ahead 1811-2011: The Enduring Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River.

Robert L. Reid
Robert Reid is a retired Provost and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Southern Indiana. His current research centers on the 1937 Ohio and Mississippi River flood.

Gerald W. “Jerry” Sutphin
Jerry Sutphin is an artist, author, audio visual producer, exhibit designer, and river/steamboat historian. He lives in Huntington, West Virginia.

Ken Wheeler
Ken Wheeler has spent his entire career in various sectors of the maritime industry, including both inland waterways and deep water. He has been associated with the River Discovery Center in Paducah, Kentucky since its inception.

Robert Willis
Robert Willis is retired Chief of Operations, Great Lakes and Ohio River Division with over 30 years of service with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

2011 Steamboat Bicentennial Regional Planning Group Contacts

Huntington, WV Area
Mr. Jerry Sutphin
Email: jer1lee@aol.com
Phone: 304-525-7355

Cincinnati, OH Area
Ms. M’Lissa Kesterman
Email: mkesterman@cincymuseum.org
Phone: 513-287-7089

Louisville, KY Area
Ms. Kadie Engstrom
Email: Kadie.Engstrom@louisvilleky.gov
Phone: 502-574-2992

Evansville, IN Area
Dr. Robert L. Reid
Email: rreid@usi.edu
Phone: 812-626-0907

Ms. Leslie Townsend
Email: ltownsen@usi.edu
Phone: 812-465-7013

Paducah, KY Area
Ms. Charlotte Anderson
Email: golconda64@yahoo.com
Phone: 618-638-2286

Ms. Julie Harris
Email: jharris@riverheritagemuseum.org
Phone: 270-575-9958