NMHA Board of Trustees
The Navesink Maritime Heritage Association's day to day operations take place through the Board of Trustees. The Board includes the officers and trustees and meets every Saturday morning from 8:00am to 9:30am. The board meetings are generally open to members, and members can contact any of the board members if they are interested in attending.
Rik van Hemmen, President & Trustee
Rik van Hemmen, is President of Martin, Ottaway, van Hemmen & Dolan, Inc., a Red Bank based maritime engineering firm that specializes in the technical, economic and operational resolution of marine disasters on a world wide basis. Rik is a third generation maritime engineer whose family moved to the Navesink area in 1976. Rik has designed, built and sailed small craft all his life and through his business is deeply involved in environmental issues.
Rik's special interests are educational methods, man/nature interaction and sustainable design.
Contact him HERE.
Lynn Fylak, Vice President & Trustee (development & grants)
Lynn Fylak is a seasoned art director and designer with a client base of national and regional non-profit and cultural organizations. She was the Art Director at Christie’s auction house from 1997-2015. Lynn has worked with many local nonprofits and museums.
For NMHA in 2019 she helped with the set-up of the Guns Blazing! art show at Twin Lights Museum and designed the Guns Blazing! exhibition program.
In 2020 she submitted and won a grant of $22,000 for NMHA to develop the historical aspects of the Grover House. From 2022 she will continue to identify opportunities for grants to help further NMHA’s mission.
Mary Gerdes, Treasurer & Trustee
Mary Gerdes is a retired corporate professional who was raised in Monmouth County. Her family has enjoyed the River Rangers and Sea Scouts programs and you can find them volunteering at NMHA’s on-water events. Her son completed his Eagle Scout service project at Grover House, including a native plant porch garden and clam shell patio. Mary’s interests include environmental education, community outreach and nonpartisan voter awareness.
Contact her HERE
Michael Humphreys, Secretary & Trustee (events)
Michael Humphreys is a retired sales executive for one of the IT industry's global leaders in retail and banking systems automation. He has worked in the United Kingdom and in Europe, and for the last 30 years in New York and Monmouth County, New Jersey.
He lived in Fair Haven for 27 years before moving to Red Bank in 2016. Michael brings marketing and public relations skills to NMHA. He has a particular interest in introducing adults and youth to the joys of paddling the Navesink and Swimming River, and helped introduce and run NMHA’s public paddling events in from 2013 until the present day. He runs the website and is responsible for releasing regular Newsletters of NMHA's activities and events.
His interests encompass opera and choral music and kayaking, and has created a Certified Wildlife Habitat in his back garden in Red Bank.
Contact him HERE
Charles (Chuck) Abel, Trustee (facilities)
Chuck Abel, now retired, is a lifelong resident of the peninsula. He has mucked around both the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers on and off for many years.
Chuck is a retired Chief Engineer who sailed on the Great Lakes on Up and Downers, Steam Turbines, and Diesels.
More of a fix it guy, he focuses on NMHA's extensive “To Do List” and to that end has been a leader in the renovations of Grover House, NMHA's headquarters.
Chuck enjoys local fishing, birding, boating and the special area we are so privileged to live in. He wants to do his part to help it somehow stay that way.
Contact him HERE
Bob Markoff, Trustee (membership)
Bob Markoff was elected a Trustee on January 27th, 2021. Prior to his retirement Bob worked in marine related systems engineering positions. A graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy, he holds the rank of Captain USCGR.
Over the last 50 years Bob has owned and sailed small boats on the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers. He is a past Commodore of the Monmouth Boat Club and is a certified US Sailing small boat instructor. He is concerned and actively involved with maintaining the unique qualities of our area’s recreational waterways.
He is a member of the Navesink River Municipalities Commission, serves on the Tinton Falls Planning Board and is an appointed member of the TF Environmental Commission.
Contact him HERE
Steven Schwankert, Trustee (programs and speakers)
Steven Schwankert is an award-winning writer and editor with more than 25 years of experience in Greater China, focusing on exploration, technology, and culture. He is the co-creator of "The Six," a book and documentary project about the Chinese passengers aboard RMS Titanic and author of "Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine" was published in 2013 by Hong Kong University Press. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fellow and East and South Asia Chapter Chair of The Explorers Club, and a PADI course director.
Connie and Joe Cali-Poutre, Trustee (social media)
Connie and Joe, married for 32 years, each have their own connection to the maritime world. Connie worked for the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) for many years, culminating in becoming their Webmaster until she retired. Joe has been a life-long maritime and naval history enthusiast, builder of many ship models, and was a Trustee and co-webmaster of the Battleship New Jersey Historical Museum Society. He presently works for Aventiv Technologies.
Retired Trustees
Charles Ladoulis, Founder, Past President & Trustee Emeritus
Charles Ladoulis was an academic pathologist who moved here in 1994. His career has been a combination of practice, research, education and project management. One of his prime motivations for moving to the Navesink area was the physical beauty of the Navesink River and its unique interaction of heavily urbanized areas, parks, tidal ecology and historical significance. He immediately joined Monmouth Boat Club and became active in community outreach, which led to Charles' leadership in founding NMHA. He divided his time between promoting NMHA programs, practice of diagnostic pathology, contributing editor for the Catboat Association, and writing and speaking on Navesink maritime history. His specific interests were maritime history, traditional wooden boats, environmental education and community outreach. He passed away in 2024.
Tom Gibson, Trustee Emeritus
Tom Gibson is a retired Bell Labs engineer and independent software consultant who has lived in the area since 1962. He learned sailing racing a Jet 14 on the Navesink River. Tom has been associated with the Clearwater organization for many years and is a skipper of the “Adam Hyler”, a traditional clamming garvey that is operated as a historical vessel on the Navesink river.
Tom's specific interests are traditional craft operation, boat building and environmental awareness. Contact him HERE
Gayle Horvath, Vice President, Treasurer & Trustee Emeritus
Co-founder of NMHA, Gayle Horvath has been a program manager for NJ Charter School Association, a freelance technical writer and educational consultant. As a former mathematics and computer science teacher, she has a deep interest in education and educational techniques, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Red Bank Charter School and a founding member of NMHA.
Gayle's specific interests are wooden boat construction as a teaching tool, educational opportunities for children and adults, history and community outreach.
Contact her HERE.