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Our mission is to educate, inspire, connect and involve our community and visitors in the stewardship of our unique island history. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch!
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Nancy has lived on Orcas since 2020 coming here as an empty nester with her avid sailor husband. Nancy is New Mexico born, raised in Singapore and then has had many other stints up and down the West Coast. She has over 30 years in the non-profit industry always working in the areas of arts, culture, literature and heritage. She has a BA degree in Economics from Scripps College and a MA in Urban Planning from UCLA with an emphasis on the history of the built environmen.
An Orcas resident since 2017, Debbie has family ties to what feels like half of Olga and beyond. She teases she knows more of her husband’s family history than he does. Debbie is our museum admin, but also bookkeeper for many island businesses, and treasurer to several non-profits beyond the park.
Michelle grew up in Whatcom County and has lived on Orcas Island since 2020. In the spring of 2022, she joined the Museums as a weekly docent. Within a year, Michelle decided to bite the bullet and become a full-time staff member. She now works as the Program Administrator, and is currently working on revitalizing the Oral History Project and designing new exhibits.
A resident of Orcas Island for almost ten years, Meryl is passionate about connecting her community with history. Meryl earned her Master of Library and Information Science and Certificate in Archival Studies from Louisiana State University in 2022, she has been applying her skills in research, curation, and archival organization at the museum since 2021.
Terri Vinson has been involved in the Museum for many years. She started as a volunteer in 2012, working alongside her grandmother doing archival organization and research, and she eventually became the program director for the Saving Orcas Voices phase of the oral history program. She currently works in the archives, digitizing and preserving decades worth of backlogged treasures.
Bonnie is retired from a career in public service with the City of Portland, OR. as the manager of
the Building Permit Services Division. She also served as a Centennial School District Board of
Directors for eight years and on several Oregon non profit boards. Her first introduction to the
San Juan Islands was when her parents bought a vacation home on Blakely Island in 1974…it
was love at first sight!. Bonnie and her husband, Bob, have lived full time on Orcas since 2016.
Reading many of the memoirs of early settlers of the islands is what hooked her into the unique
history and culture of Orcas and got her involved with the Museum.
Bruce is a retired physician, University of Washington emeritus professor and long-time Orcas property owner, now living here full-time since 2013. The Culver family has had a continuous presence on the island since the 1890’s, including the state registered historic Alderbrook Farmhouse. Bruce grew up at the former Point Lawrence Lodge Resort and attended Nellie S Milton school in his early years.
Carol moved to Orcas Island 20 years ago where she and her husband owned a successful B&B
that was originally built in 1910 and can be found on the Homestead map in the museum. She
has always loved history and when traveling loves to visit historical sites and read all about their
history.
Antoinette first came on board with Museum projects in 1998 when she became project director for an Oral History Exhibit that became part of a nation-wide traveling exhibit. Over the years she has developed dozens of stories gleaned from her ongoing work in personal histories on Orcas Island. For four summers she treated islanders and visitors to a series of “Spooky Tales with an Orcas Spin” performed weekly at both museum sites. As an active Board member, she keeps us on our toes by thinking outside the box, while supporting everything to do with the still-emerging story of human life here on Orcas Island. As the second generation offspring of a Metis trapper family from Canada who pioneered in Washingon State, she is especially connected to matters concerning the Indigenous presence here in the islands.
Peter Fisher made history in the 1980’s by instigating and stewarding three transformative
community organizing projects: The Preservation of Madrona Point with a $2.2M Congressional
appropriation in 1989; the creation of the San Juan County Citizen’s Conservation Land Bank by popular vote in 1990 (income exceeds $125M to date); and the establishment of OPAL
Community Land Trust (over $50M raised for permanently affordable housing) in 1989. Since
then he has created one of the largest collections of Historic Orcas photographs and Maps in
San Juan County (www.petercfisher.com). Come see his Historic Island Maps exhibit at the
Museum through Spring 2025.
Tony has been on Orcas since 2005 and is a retired physician He has been a docent at Crow
Valley School for many years. Each area of our country has its own individual history. How
fascinating to discover Orcas and the San Juan Islands.
After 39 years, Mark recently retired from Boeing as Senior Vice President responsible for
commercial airplane programs. He has owned property on the island for about ten years, and
now calls Orcas his full-time home. He has always been interested in history and recently
published a book on Orcas Island history.