Door County Lecture: Desh Next Speaker in Winter Program

The Door County Maritime Museum (DCMM) continues its Winter Speakers Series on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 7 pm in the museum in Sturgeon Bay when Bob Desh, the museum’s new executive director, will present a program on his 36-year career in the United States Coast Guard.

Desh enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1971, rose through the enlisted ranks to the grade of Chief Petty Officer in 1981 and was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade after completing Coast Guard Officer Indoctrination School in 1984. He achieved the rank of Captain in 2004 and retired in November of 2007. During his Coast Guard career he served on six Coast Guard cutters, including the Mesquite, which was home ported in Sturgeon Bay. Desh will also recount his duty on desolated off-shore lighthouses such as Rock of Ages in Lake Superior and Minneapolis Shoals in northern Green Bay. Of particular interest is his command of the U.S. International Ice Patrol which was created after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and continues to monitor ice and oceanographic conditions in the Grand Banks region of the North Atlantic. Desh assumed the executive director position at the museum in late October.

The Speakers Series is sponsored by the Friends of the Door County Maritime Museum, an organization dedicated to assisting the museum both through fundraising projects and volunteer service. Admission to the program is free. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends groups. Donations will be appreciated.

Two additional programs are planned for this winter. Dan Schwarz, owner of Dan’s Fish in Institute, will give a talk on Tuesday, Feb. 2 about his growing international seafood operation. Then on Tuesday, Feb. 24, historian Richard Smith will be at the museum to talk about shipwrecks.

For more information call 920.743.5958 or visit http://www.dcmm.org.