RADM Dan May, USCG (ret.) Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont.

Daniel R. May graduated with a degree in ocean engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in the class of 1979. During his time as the ocean engineer for the Fifth Coast Guard District, Dan worked on lighthouse projects from Delaware Bay to the Carolinas. Dan eventually moved to Civil Engineering Unit Providence, Rhode Island, where he served as the project engineer for several major lighthouse projects including the relocation of Block Island Southeast Light, the first move of a major lighthouse structure in the United States. Dan retired as a rear admiral in 2013. He is the author of a new book published by the U.S. Lighthouse Society, called Preserving America’s Lighthouses: Memoirs of a Coast Guard Ocean Engineer.

Tawas Point Lighthouse during restoration.

Tawas Point Lighthouse is located in Tawas Point State Park in the northeastern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The State of Michigan acquired Tawas Point Light Station from the Coast Guard in 2002. Today, it’s one of twelve sites that comprise the Michigan History Center. Laurie Perkins is the Southern Lower Peninsula Historian for the Michigan History Center and she also coordinates the keeper program at Tawas Point Lighthouse. In this interview, Laurie describes the recent restoration of the lighthouse and also the keepers program, which is returning after an absence of a few years.