Dr. Timothy J. Runyan

Dr. Timothy J. Runyan is special projects assistant in the Maritime Heritage Program, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  He was Acting Manager of the program in 2007-1010.  Dr. Runyan received his PhD from the University of Maryland.  His academic career includes appointments at Cleveland State University, Oberlin College, and East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, where he is a professor and Senior Research Associate in the Institute for Coastal Science and Policy.  He has published widely and has served as editor of the scholarly journal American Neptune, published at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.  Dr. Runyan is chair of the editorial advisory board of Sea History, published by the National Maritime Historical Society. 

A founder of the Great Lakes Science Center, Dr. Runyan has led the effort to preserve the 1925-built, 618-foot Steamship William G. Mather as a museum ship on the Cleveland lakefront.  He is past president of the Great Lakes Historical Society which operates the Inland Seas Museum.  He also is chair of the National Maritime Alliance, a leading advocate for maritime heritage.  A scuba diver, Dr. Runyan has participated in several underwater archaeology projects.  He was a principal investigator in the survey and identification of the Russian-American Company bark Kad'yak that sank in 1860 off Kodiak, Alaska.  It is the oldest shipwreck found in Alaska, and the only Russian-American Company ship discovered.

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