The Lewes Historical Society’s “Lewes Lunch & Learn” on September 9, features Joanne Guilfoil with “Joe Hudson, Ted Freeman, and the Menhaden Fishing Industry”

Lewes, Delaware – For the first Lewes Lunch & Learn of the season, on Friday, September 9, at noon in Hotel Rodney, Joanne Guilfoil will present “Joe Hudson, Ted Freeman, and the Menhaden Fishing Industry.”

As best friends in high school, “local boys” Joe Hudson and Ted Freeman played football on the first team in the area and were “really hurt by those Rehoboth boys,” as Joe Hudson recalled.  As 10th graders in the late 1940s they traded work for flying lessons, and then began flying out of the Rehoboth Airport.  During this presentation, learn how these two best friends became pioneer fish spotters flying for Otis Smith, before graduating from high school, the Lewes School, in 1948. You may be surprised by the significant impact their influence had on changing the developing Menhaden industry, which by 1956 recorded the haul of fish at over 2 billion pounds!

Joanne K. Guilfoil was born in 1949 and raised in New York. At age 13, she moved with family to Potomac, Maryland.  Summer family beach vacations always included surfing and fishing, and began in Surf City, New Jersey, changed to Ocean City, Maryland, then Fenwick Island, Delaware.  At age 17 she left for Kentucky to play college basketball and study art, her passions at that time.  Joanne later traveled to Oregon and Alaska to complete graduate degrees, and then returned to teach in Kentucky.  After 30 years of raising a family and teaching, she moved to North Carolina, then to Delaware.  She loves The Lewes Historical Society’s Cannonball House Maritime Museum, where she can tell of the menhaden fish stories she heard as a kid!

The Lewes Historical Society hosts a “Lewes Lunch & Learn” series, which includes various topics relating to the history of Lewes and surrounding area. This series is led by local history buffs, heritage area experts, and museum professionals. Lectures will take place on announced dates, beginning at noon in the downstairs meeting room of the Hotel Rodney at the corner of Second and Market Streets, Lewes, Delaware. These events are free and open to the public.  Space is limited.  Seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. It is suggested that attendees bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy during the lecture.

These programs are sponsored by Hotel Rodney.

For a complete listing of the Lewes Lunch & Learn series, and to learn more about The Lewes Historical Society, please visit www.HistoricLewes.org or call 302-645-7670.