News from the Finger Lakes Boating Museum

The Finger Lakes Boating Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. David C. Danahar, a retired college president, as Executive Director of the Boating Museum.Danahar, who now lives in Canandaigua, was President of Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, MI, from 2001 to 2011.“I am excited about the opportunity to provide support and work on fund raising for the Boating Museum,” said Danahar. “I am looking forward to the new challenge.”“We are delighted to announce the engagement of Dr. Danahar as Executive Director of the Boating Museum,” said William Oben, president of the Museum. He brings a wealth of valuable knowledge in resource development and organizational administration gained from his extensive academic career.”The Boating Museum reached agreement with the City of Geneva in the fall of 2009 to establish a permanent home on the Geneva waterfront in association with the city’s Visitor Center. The building, which will be located on the current Geneva Chamber of Commerce site, is being enabled by a $2 million grant provided to the city by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio.Also named to the staff of the Boating Museum as assistant to the executive director is Bobbi Clifford of Romulus. Clifford is retired after 35 years of teaching in various local school districts, including Geneva, North Rose-Wolcott, Naples, Lyons, Clyde-Savannah andNewark. She coordinated and directed programs for Gifted and Talented Students and Arts-In-Education programs. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, Inc.As president of Southwest Minnesota State, Danahar was the chief executive officer of the university responsible for leading the faculty, staff and students in developing and accomplishing the university’s mission.His administrative experience also includes serving as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Loyola University in New Orleans from 1992-2001, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University in Connecticut from 1985-1992, Director of General Education at the State University of New York at Oswego from 1979-1985 and Acting Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the State University of New York at Oswego in 1983 and 1984-1985. Danahar has been successfully engaged in fund raising throughout his career and has had major responsibilities in a number of capital campaigns.In another exciting development related to the appointment of an executive director, the Boating Museum has engaged Danforth Development of Rochester to lead the creation of an aggressive fundraising plan for capital needs for the organization.”Strong financial and voluntary support has already been indentified from five Finger Lakes communities: Geneva, Syracuse/Skaneateles, Rochester, Canandaigua and Corning,” said Dana Kimberly, President of Danforth Development. “The Boating Museum’s business plan is rock-solid and the new Museum is perfectly placed to tell the story of the extraordinary history of boat manufacturing in the region.”We look forward to working with David (Danahar) to secure the funds necessary so that families can enjoy the exhibitions as well as on-water programming in historic wooden boats here on beautiful Seneca Lake.”Danahar earned his PhD degree in 1970 from the University of Massachusetts after studying at Oxford University in Oxford, England, from 1968-1969 and the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria, from 1967-1968. He received his MA degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1965 and his BA degree from Manhattan College in the Bronx in 1963.He has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Research Foundation of the State University of New York and the University of Massachusetts and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Theta and Alpha Sigma Nu honor societies. The Boating Museum’s collection of more than 100 historic boats and vessels built in the Finger Lakes also includes numerous related artifacts and extensive reference material. Besides the story of boat manufacturing, the Boating Museum also researches and informs on the impact that marine transportation has had on the development of the region.The collection of boats and artifacts is being moved to a storage facility in the Geneva Enterprise Development Center on North Genesee Street arranged by the Geneva IDA.Portions of the collection will be displayed on a rotating basis within the new facility, but there will be a lot more to the museum than viewing boats because education and preservation are the key elements of the museum’s mission. Also featured are boat rides on Seneca Lake, active on-water programs including sailing and small boat handling, interactive workshops and displays to engage visitors in the design, construction and use of the boats and boating history materials and programs. The Boating Museum is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation and was chartered by the New York State Department of Education in 1997 to “research, document, preserve and share the boating history of the Finger Lakes region.”