LAST PAGE: Robert Morgan, 69
Retired physician selected as ‘Volunteer of the Year’ at H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego
By Stefan Yablonski
The H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego recently hosted a recognition to honor board vice president Robert Morgan, 69, and trustee Don Smith as the 2025 Volunteers of the Year. We spoke with Morgan about his time at the museum.
Congratulations on your award.
A: Thank you.
Q: You practiced medicine in Oswego for a long time, correct?
A: Yes. I retired after 40 years. It will be four years in July.
Q: So that is when you started volunteering?
A: I have been volunteering for a long time at the museum. I have been doing financial things, supporting them for many years. So, in retirement I came in as a board member — in 2018 I think. We have revamped things tremendously. We have a new board and are really working toward our future for the community.
Q: Have you done other volunteer work?
A: Yes. For example, I worked with the soccer association for years. I raised a lot of the money for the fields by the middle school. I am always involved in something. I love this area. In retirement I can spend more time in support of the community.
Q: What are some of the things you are doing at the museum?
A: I started working with the lighthouse crews going out there. I am now a merchant marine captain. We go out and work on the renovations out there. We are working on refitting our 1850 style schooner Ontario. On Memorial Day weekend our sister ship, the St. Lawrence II, is going to be here for four days. We are working with the port. [Port director] Tom Schneider has been unbelievably community-oriented. We got 15,000 gallons of old fuel off the LT-5 to stabilize her permanently. We are hoping to build a dry dock to put her in so people can get back onboard. The LT-5 is a national historic landmark and is one of only nine surviving U.S. ships that was involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II.
Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: I love the community that I live in. I love doing medicine here — this is home. I like the seasons. I love the lake, I grew up on the lake. I am a history nut. We have done some amazing things as a community.
Q: Anything special coming up?
A: It was the anniversary of the Erie Canal. The reason we are trying to get the schooner Ontario back in the water in 2028 is it’s the 200th anniversary of the Oswego Canal hooking into the Erie Canal. We hope to have a tall ship event with the three sister ships of the Ontario. That’s our goal right now.
Q: What’s it like volunteering here?
A: I love working with all the people here, the majority of us are volunteers. There is tremendous history in our area and it’s all good history — the Underground Railroad, Women’s Rights movement and the Safe Haven Museum. It’s just tremendously positive here. We are going to keep growing. The potential is just tremendous for our area. We can benefit not just New York state but the entire country. We take pride in what we have in this county. We should be very proud. We are moving forward. There are great things to come and working at the museum, being a volunteer, allows me to be a part of that.
Q: Anything you’d like to add?
A: I love it. If I had to do it all over again, I’d be back in the same area. I made a difference. I enjoyed it. I just want to continue; I want to keep doing good things in the community.