Topic starter
11/02/2011 10:02 pm
Jonathan's scholarly posting in the KALITAN thread is an indirect tribute to Capt. Fred Way Jr., whose birthday is Feb. 17th. (I posted this on Thomas Alva Edison's birthday, Feb. 11 because I didn't utilize one of his best inventions, the incandescent electric light bulb when I was looking at my calendar. Hence it looked like 17, not 11. oh well...) Capt. Fred walked and talked steamboats and the river and was a main cog in spreading river history and the love for it to many of us. And while Jonathan is too young to have known Capt. Fred, his father certainly knew him and so yet another generation is influenced by Fred Way Jr. And while Capt. Fred's skills as a pilot and boat owner were great, they were superceded in his importance in our history by his writings - not only his books, but his origination and longtime editorship of the Reflector, in which coincidentally Jonathan is now assisting his father David. Here's to many happy memories with Fred Way, and for those who never had the privilege to know him, here's to his efforts which have in some way touched you too if you are interested in steamboats and their history.