IMMEDIATE RELEASE             July 15, 2004

Davis Helberg, former Duluth port director and one of the nation’s leading advocates for the Great Lakes maritime industry, will receive a dedication plaque from the local maritime community at an 8 a.m. ceremony on Friday, July 16, at the Vista Fleet Dock adjacent to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.

The plaque will be placed later that day in a footing next to the museum tug Bayfield, an outdoor interpretive exhibit stationed in front of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth’s popular Canal Park (see above photo).

“This is a fitting location for Davis Helberg’s dedication plaque, because the Bayfield was classed as a “tender,” the workhorses of the Corps fleet,” said Jerry Fryberger, president of Duluth’s Hallett Dock Company and chair of the local Helberg Recognition Committee.

“ The tenders were pressed into duty for a wide variety of tasks in the rivers and harbors of the nation. Davis served, and continues to serve, in much the same capacity,” said Fryberger.

Helberg became a consultant to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority on April 1, 2003, after 24 years as executive director. He continues to serve as a director of the Chamber of Maritime Commerce in Ottawa, Ontario; the Northeast-Midwest Institute in Washington, D.C.; the University of Wisconsin-Superior Transportation and Logistics Center, the University of Minnesota-Duluth Alworth Institute of International Studies and the Lake Superior Maritime Museum Association and is president of the Duluth-Superior Harbor Club.

In 2003 Helberg was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the U.S. Coast Guard's distinguished public service award. He is past chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities (1994-95) and in 2002 received its ImPORTant Service Award.

Helberg began his career as a Great Lakes deckhand in 1958 and worked as a vessel agent, newspaper reporter, port public relations director, pilotage manager and stevedoring company president prior to becoming port director in January 1979.

The former U.S. Army Corps of Engineer tug Bayfield was placed on permanent display outside the Maritime Visitors Center in December of 1998. During the tug’s 40-year career with the Corps, it was used primarily to move mud scows around the Duluth-Superior harbor for the dipper dredge Gaillard. The 45-foot tug was built in 1953 at Roamer Boat Co., Holland, Mich., as the ST-2023, a craft constructed for support roles during the Allied invasions. She was transferred to the Corps in 1962 and re-christened Bayfield to honor one of the principal harbors in the Corps of Engineers’ Duluth area jurisdiction.

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CONTACT: Lisa Marciniak, Port Promotion Manager, Phone 218-727-8525

More Press Releases, 2004