John Proudley
I was born and raised in central Ohio, a somewhat landlocked environment, if you don’t count Lake Erie. As a youngster, I spent many hours building plastic kits of cars, hot rods, planes, tanks, and an occasional ship. During my busy teen years, modeling went by the wayside, my time spent more on rock groups, sports, and dating my future wife (now 50 years).
It was not until I entered the Navy in 1968 that I began to develop a real love of ships and the sea. I spent most of my four-year hitch at sea on a Gearing class destroyer, and saw much of the world, from WestPac to the Med and Caribbean. I found that I enjoyed being at sea, homesickness aside, much more than I appreciated the Navy at the time. I developed much more of an appreciation for the Navy later in life. During those navy years, I made a couple of attempts at building a square rigger model kit, but it went unfinished due to sea time.
After the Navy, life really got busy with university, a family, and a manufacturing/research career that required significant travel and a couple of transfers from the Midwest to the east coast. It was not until near the end of my 35+ year career that my wife reminded me that I needed a number of hobbies to avoid driving her crazy when I retired. I got lucky, in that I started building ship model kits from Blue Jacket, which sells very high quality kits and has great customer support.
Upon retiring, my wife and I moved to the Williamsburg, VA area in early 2013. At some point, we decided to visit the Mariners‘ Museum. Not only was I really impressed with the museum, I also learned about the HRSMS, and decided to attend a meeting. I was overwhelmed with the level of skill and knowledge of the club members, as well their diverse backgrounds and experience. The members have always been extremely helpful in answering questions about modeling and maritime history. Being a member of HRSMS has been a privilege, and I look forward to being a member for a very long time.