Radzak Honored

Lee Radzak, the site administrator of Minnesota’s historic Split Rock Lighthouse, was recently honored with the Lake Superior Achievement Award. As the site administrator and manager, Radzak has lived in the former lighthouse keeper’s house for an amazing 32 years. During that time he has lead a concerned and dedicated effort to educating the public about the historic integrity of the lighthouse and managing hundreds of programs at the lighthouse. We congratulate Lee Radzak for this well deserving award.

Celebrating 20 Years

Congratulations to the New Dungeness Light Station Association in Sequim, Washington for recently celebrating their 20th year of operating the lighthouse. Not only have they done an amazing job of saving the lighthouse, they have hosted 80,000 visitors to a lighthouse that is often difficult to get to and the volunteers put in about 6,000 hours a year maintaining the historic light station. The group’s keeper program keeps the lighthouse staffed 365 days a year.

Sri Lanka Light Restored

The old dilapidated lighthouse in Kankasanthurai, Sri Lanka has been restored by engineers of the Sri Lanka Army. The colonial era lighthouse was erected in 1892 on the Jaffna Peninsula during British rule when the nation was known as Ceylon. During the Sri Lanka civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009, the lighthouse had been abandoned and it had fallen into a severe state of dilapidation.

Digby to Get Three Lights

If all goes according to plan, Canada’s Nova Scotia municipality of Digby may soon have ownership of Bear River Lighthouse, the Point Prim Lighthouse, and the Bear’s Head Lighthouse. All three lighthouses will be managed by three different volunteer groups.

Ashland Light Transfer

Ownership of the 1915 Ashland Breakwater Lighthouse in Ashland, Wisconsin will be transferred to the National Park Service. The transfer will take place thanks to legislation passed Congress.

Rockefellers Help Lighthouse

David and Susan Rockefeller have made a “significant contribution” to Maine’s Cuckolds Fog Signal and Light Station. The restored and rebuilt lighthouse recently opened for overnight stays.

DVD for Thacher Island

A new DVD that traces the history of Thacher Island in Massachusetts is now available. They are available for sale on their web site at www.thacherisland.org.

I Love You

Massachusetts’s philanthropist and Polaroid chairman Bobby Sager is the new owner of the Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse that is known as the “Lovers Light because of its flash sequence of 1-4-3 which lighthouse aficionados and locals claim stands for “I Love You.” At $222,000, Sager was the high bidder at a government auction for ownership of the lighthouse.

Presque Isle Gets Money

Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle Lighthouse in Erie received a gift of $150,000 of the proceeds of the August 9 Best Summer Night Performance, which featured Steely Dan and was hosted by the Presque Isle Partnership. This will be a big boost in helping transform the lighthouse into a public historic site.

Piedras Blancas Leader Lost

The staff and volunteers at the Piedras Blanca Light Station and Outstanding Natural Area in California were left without a leader upon the sudden death on November 5th, of Park Manager Jim Boucher. Boucher, age 60, had been at the light station for about eight years and had achieved much in the way of restoration and resource protection during his time there. Our condolences go out to his friends and family.

Average Guy’s Huge Donation

Gary Pros, 62, of Ohio, who passed away from cancer on April 10, 2014, left $350,000 to the nonprofit American Lighthouse Foundation. Obviously Gary loved lighthouses, and over the years some of his photos were published in Lighthouse Digest. Back in 1999, in 16 days he drove 6,858 miles, took 450 photos of lighthouses and over seven hours of videos while visiting 80 lighthouses. I first met Gary over 15 years ago and corresponded with him on and off over time. One time many years ago while talking with him in Wells, Maine, he asked what the average person, who didn’t live near a lighthouse where they could volunteer, could do to help. One of the suggestions that I mentioned was to leave money in their will to their favorite lighthouse or their favorite group, and naturally, since I was president of the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF) at that time, I said that hopefully people would consider leaving money to ALF “because we need all the help we can get,” and I jokingly added “Not that we want anybody to die.” I never in a million years thought he would consider leaving a small fortune to ALF; a few hundred dollars perhaps, but I never imagined it would be so much. After all, it was just a casual conversation.

Since I have not been as invoived with ALF as I had been for a number of years now, I don’t know how this transpired and what happened to make it possible, but it is certainly a testament to those who were involved. ALF has made up a plaque to honor Gary Pros that is now displayed at their headquarters at Owls Head Lighthouse in Maine. Obviously Gary’s passion and love for lighthouses were above and beyond what I, and perhaps others, ever expected. Hopefully Gary’s bequest to ALF will make others consider doing the same thing in their will for their favorite lighthouse or lighthouse group, because each and every lighthouse or lighthouse group needs a beacon like Gary Pros to help keep the lights shining.

Passing of Marla Rogers

We are saddened to report on the passing of Marla Rogers who passed away on October 15 at the age of 74. Marla was born on September 9, 1940 at Great Point Lighthouse in Massachusetts as one of the seven children of lighthouse keeper Archford “Ted” Vernon Haskins and his wife Bertha. Her father had previously been stationed at Boston, Sankaty Head, and Long Point lighthouses in Massachusetts. In 1947 when she was a young girl, her father was transferred to Owls Head Lighthouse in Maine where he served as the lighthouse keeper until his retirement in 1953. On August 1, 1959 she married LeRoy Rogers under an apple tree at his parent’s home in Owls Head, Maine. In recent years Marla Rogers gave numerous talks about growing up at a lighthouse and she served as a volunteer at Owls Head Lighthouse and at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland. Our sincere condolences go out to her family and friends.

This story appeared in the Jan/Feb 2015 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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