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Board names Swanson executive of transportation mu

Reprinted courtesy of The Grinnell-Herald Register September 8, 2003

The board of directors of the Iowa Transportation Museum (ITM) has announced that John W. Swanson, a private consultant with a background in marketing, public relations and fundraising, will be the ITM’s next executive director.

Swanson is stepping into the vacancy created by the death of Mark Hudson, the project’s first executive, who died of cancer July 17.

The ITM has secured the former Spaulding buggy and automobile manufacturing facility here in as the future home of an education destination devoted to transportation topics. Mayor Gordon Canfield and Merlin Manatt represent Grinnell on that statewide board.

“Non-profit organizations traditionally depend upon a paid executive who is talented, dedicated and enthusiastic to the cause in questions,” noted ITM Board President Gerry Schnepf.

“Mark Hudson was that type of person…in a short period of time; he led the ITM to a successful beginning. All of us on the board will miss his enthusiasm and skill in obtaining grants for the project.”

In announcing the new appointment, Schnepf said that Swanson continues that strong tradition, bringing “skills, background, enthusiasm and talent to the project.”

“John will help all of us – board embers, transportation enthusiasts, historians and local residents – develop a vision we can share, embrace, become excited about and suppor6t. We welcome John and want to encourage everyone to take the opportunity to get to know him.”

Swanson was born and raised in Chicago, eventually earning a masters degree in business and management and another masters in counseling from Northern Illinois University. Three days after his graduation in 1970, he began what would be a 15-year administrative career with Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, starting as director of student activities and working his way up to marketing director.

In 1985, he left Kirkwood to go to work doing public relations and sponsor-finding for Cedar Rapids-based Cahill Racing team. He also ran an in-house advertising agency for Cahill, coordinating all the advertising for the 70 hotels Cahill owns and operates.

Swanson has had his own consulting business since 1992. In that capacity he served for five years as foundation and marketing director for Meth-Wick Retirement Community, raising $2.5 million for its various projects.

In 1996, he began his involvement with Motor Memories, Inc., the parent company to MotorIoway, which holds at least two motor tours annually.

The fall tour, which typically consists of over 200 per-1976 cars, trucks and motorcycles, is a 1,000-mile tour of Iowa and surrounding states. There is also a shorter summer tour, the MotorIoway 500, which passed through Grinnell this June, saluting the 90th anniversary of the river-to-river race between Hal Wells-in a Spaulding roadster, made in Grinnell – and the Rock Island fast mail train.

Swanson is treasurer and communications coordinator of Motor Memories, Inc. He is also deeply versed in Spaulding history, and has given several slide shows on the topic.

“After Mark’s very unfortunate passing, the board was looking for someone who had experience with marketing, PR and fundraising. At this state of the museum’s development, those are the key skills an executive director needs” Swanson.

“Once we get to the point where we start developing the museum, the project will need curators, archivists and people who have that kind of professional training.”

Swanson says the project’s next step is to complete a contract with Renaissance Design Group (RDG) of Des Moines to do “a study of all the buildings, identifying what work needs to be done to stabilize them and essentially making them tight and dry,” Swanson says.
“There will probably be some additional cleanup work as the opportunity presents itself, but we really can’t do too much until we know what we’re contending with as far as stabilization issues; what it’s going to take to make them sound, solid buildings for whatever purpose they’re put to.”

“That will give us a budget and an idea of what it will cost to achieve those, and that will lead directly into a master planning process that will help us identify the direction that the museum takes. We want to be all-inclusive when it comes to the field of transportation, as well as those supplementary activities that occur on the site.”

“Very, very open-minded”

Beyond stabilizing the structures, Swanson feels keeping an open mind about what the project could entail is a crucial stance at this juncture.

“It’s very important to keep in mind the size of this campus - land as well as square footage- which probably permits us to do things beyond the scope of a traditional museum,” he said.

“We want to keep ourselves very, very open-minded about what sort of endeavors can take place on that site, and we want to make sure they are compatible and complimentary with everything else that goes on in Grinnell and the surrounding area.”

A few things, however, are sure. “It’s safe to say it cannot simply be a collection of old vehicles. There are plenty of those. It has to be reflective of Iowa Transportation and how that Iowa impact relates to the nation.”

“We want to make sure it is interactive and that we are providing a museum that stays relevant; that it explores and interprets the past and also suggests what’s to come,” Swanson adds. ‘It needs to be engaging for children of all ages. To make a difference for the four-year-olds and the seventh-graders right up through the adults means we have to be changeable and flexible and able to bring people back time after time.”

He also says there is a “strong possibility that we can make transportation a destination stop: for groups during the course of a day, for an overnight stop – or even for longer, such as an “elderhostel” environment.

In addition to being inclusive of all types of vehicles, Swans says it is important that the project recognize the builders and the developers of the transportation system – not just its users.

With roads, for example, to consider “their genesis all the way through from original Native American paths and what became roads, then the whole “out of the mud” concept with a tremendous amount of work by a variety of individuals – including the Spaulding family – which led to the cross-state highways, such as the River-to-River Road and then the Lincoln highway.

Along the way, the process involved surveyors, engineers, people who developed the machinery for road building, and the road builders themselves.

“There are so many individuals and different angles to explore,” Swanson says.

And on a cultural level, Swanson has another mantra which is central to his approach: “You can’t have a culture without transportation.”

“No culture has emerged unless its people have found a way to move from place to place, and to move goods and services from place to place. If you’ve got roads and rail and water transportation, you simplify your life and give yourself time. And in order to have a culture, you have to have time to create that culture.

“It’s important for people to understand that culture and transportation go hand in glove. Expanding your horizons, seeing new places, learning new things – you have to be able to get there in order to do that. And getting there is transportation.”