The Lake States Railway Historical Association is governed by the Board of Trustees. The Board elects four officers at its annual meeting. Each of the trustees has an extensive background in historic railway preservation, archiving and collections. Following is a list of the current Officers and Trustees:
Richard R. Goddard (President) - North Freedom, WI
Dick Goddard has 35 years of experience in railway historical organization governance, administration, project research and strategic development planning. His lifelong interest in railway history and preservation has been utilized in various freight and passenger car projects, including an 1897 wood flat car and an 1888 wood passenger car. In addition he has overseen preservation efforts which resulted in preserving numerous important artifacts such as the last Shay locomotive built and used all its active life in Wisconsin for its original owner, and the only surviving GB&W steam locomotive. He helped create and served 22 years on his county's rail transit commission, first as Vice-chair and then as Chairman until his retirement in 2009. In addition, Dick brings 20 years of retail and facility management background and leadership to the board. Dick attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and maintains active memberships in various history and scientific organizations, including the Wisconsin Historical Association and the Sauk County Historical Association.
Donald W. Ginter (Vice President) - Beloit, WI
Don Ginter was born and raised on the East coast. His bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania led to 37 years employment in various engineering positions with Fairbanks-Morse & Co., in Beloit, Wisconsin. He joined the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society shortly after arriving in Wisconsin where his active service resulted in being appointed as Curator, a volunteer position he held for 31 years. During this time he also served several terms on the museum's Board of Directors. Along with his Curator's position he was appointed Museum Project Director supervising the museum's first multiple hundred thousand dollar professional restoration which involved a wood 1888 passenger coach. This two-year restoration project was presented with The Victorian Society in America's prestigious "Preservation Award" in 2003. The Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation 2004 Historic Preservation Award was presented Mr. Ginter in 2004. In addition to serving the Board of Trustees of the Lake States Railway Historical Association, he maintains a membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society, Soo Line Historical & Technical Society, and Society of Industrial Archeology.
J. Michael Harrington (Secretary) - Middleton, WI
J. Michael (Mike) Harrington is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin with a B.S. in International Relations and a M.S. in Education. He is a retired U.S. Navy captain and a high school teacher. Mike's interest in railroad history is two pronged; historical research and railcar restoration. He has actively worked at restoring wooden rail cars including several nationally honored railroad coaches. His research has resulted in four articles published in the SOO on the Wisconsin Central Railroad and restoration efforts. He has also spoken to numerous historical groups and given railroading merit badge instruction to both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Mike has served as secretary for the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, Treasurer for the Soo Line Historical & Technical Society for more than 20 years and for the S.L.H.&T.S. Archives from its inception in the early 1990's to the present.
Kenneth W. Breher (Treasurer)- Cedar Rapids, IA
Ken comes to Lake States with an interest in railway preservation and restoration that dates back nearly forty years. While serving with the U. S. Army in Milwaukee during the late 1960’s, he became involved with the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society. In addition to his activities in the areas of preservation and restoration, he served two terms as a Member of the Board of Directors, one term as Corporate Secretary and three terms as President of the Board. During his first two terms he guided efforts which improved the year end financial position, and negotiated agreement with the Chicago and North Western which resulted in the steam powered Prosperity Special and subsequent CNW 1385 steam excursions. In his final term Mid-Continent launched its most successful fundraising effort to restore the Milwaukee, Lakeshore and Western day coach.
Ken graduated from the Marquette University College of Engineering in 1976, and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He has worked in the Electrical Industry for more than 35 years, and is currently Product Manager for Schneider Electric/Square D. He resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with his wife, JoAnn. His son Jeremy is the LSRHA Webmaster, and his daughter Kim is a Senior Biology Major at Wartburg College.
Beyond his LSRHA interests, Ken is a published hobby author, photographer, scale model builder and donates time to read to elementary school children.
Ray W. Buhrmaster (Trustee) - Downers Grove, IL
A life-long resident of the Chicago Area, Mr. Buhrmaster was employed as an engineer for Reynolds Metals Company, involved in equipment design, project management and environmental activities before retiring in 1989. As an avocation, he has conducted in-depth research concerning century-old Chicago locomotive and car vendors utilizing such primary sources held by Newberry Library, Northwestern University, Lake Forest College and the National Archives. He has been an active member of the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society since 1963, serving as a board director and secretary. There, he has been involved in or led numerous large and small preservation and restoration projects, applying the principles of accurate research in combination with extensive artifact documentation in order to provide authentic restoration. Presently, Ray is a trustee and financial supporter of LSRHA. Ray received the Fuka-Mickiszak Memorial Award for efforts in the preservation of history from the Burlington Route Historical Society in 2006.
John F. Fisher (Trustee) - Cross Plains, WI
John Fisher brings to the board a long-held interest in American railroading from both the operational and historical standpoints, focusing on the preservation of rail equipment and artifacts as well as historical documentation. A life-long resident of Wisconsin, John and his wife Lorna reside in Cross Plains, Wisconsin and have three grown children. A retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Four, John is also retired from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. He belongs to numerous historical groups, including the C&NW Historical Society of which he is a director, NRHS, R&LHS, Milw. Rd. Historical Association, U.P. Historical Society, Soo Line Hist. and Tech. Society and its DSS&A Division, Rock Island Technical Society, Burlington Route Historical Society, GN Ry. Historical Society, ICRR Historical Society, N.P. Ry. Historical Association, Wisconsin Historical Society as well as the Badger History Group, Inc. of which he is a director. John and Lorna are active attendees and participants in regional meets and shows on a regular basis and enjoy rail travel and photography frequently. John also takes an active interest in model railroading; he is a member of the NMRA, where he is a past director of the Madison, WI division and currently serves as chair of both Special Projects and Magazine Publicity.
Clinton Jones, Jr. (Trustee) - Hancock, MI
Clint Jones, who attended Michigan Technological University majoring in Business, brings to LSRHA a life-long history of railroad employment and management and large and small railroad artifact collecting. He began his career in diesel locomotive maintenance working for the Milwaukee Road but soon became General Manager of Trans Northern, Inc. (passenger, steam); General Manager of Algoma Railroad Company (passenger) and Chippewa River Railroad Company (freight).
From 1982 to the present he serves as President of Mineral Range, Inc., a railway equipment, industry switching, and transportation consulting firm providing short line startup expertise to customers. Clint also served as Trainmaster for Wisconsin Central Railway from 1987 to 1997, supervising train operations and train crews and providing customer service over the 200 mile territory.
Over the years Clint has assembled a personal collection of steam and diesel locomotives, railroad cars, photographs and paper documents, mostly focused upon railroads of the Michigan Upper Peninsula. He has demonstrated concern for preservation and sharing with the public by providing items from his collection to the LSRHA and other historical preservation organizations.
